Well I've just discovered a new astronomical phenomena

[Greyhawk]

Thats what this was like. Try jumping out of SC on the dark side of it and watching it grow with frightning speed, it seems to be swallowing the stars. I'm pretty sure I was within a gnats wing of being blown up by it since I was in the rings so was unlikely to register as being in space and near the moon. It could have just passed through me I guess?

 

[Kancro Vantas]

Wow!! these pictures are awesome and great discovery!!!

Will be paying attention next time if I find something like that!!

Repped.

Supercruise up to them then hit the Frame-Shift Drive button and it'll drop you out of supercruise. If you're going 30km/s it won't do you any damage. Or you can fly right at the rings and let the safety dump stop you in the nick of time (and take some damage)

Edit: if those shepherd moons are creating gaps in the rings, presumably they're constantly getting shot-peened by asteroids. I bet the whole thing is pretty visually dramatic. I daydream that some day some explorer will find the core of a planetoid that had been slammed by rocks for millions of years and is down to just a solid hunk of metal, maybe platinum, or a large carbon crystal.

I think we have those already SB...they are called Rich Metal planets...they are orbiting so close to the star that they are believed to once being a planet that got torn up by the massive tidal forces of the star...striping it of all but their cores....their temprature is always above 1,000k...but the giveaway is their composition: always 100% metal...since there are no real planets with this make up, theory goes, it is a nucleus stripped naked of their planetary garment... ;-)

 

[Ziljan]

Or fly to close to the gas giant itself.

But it's fun to use the mass of it all to handbrake when you're supercruising. Also puts you right in the middle and usually at scanning range of everything.

If I read the patch notes correctly, the gas giant textures are being updated, possibly adding depth to the clouds, like on rocky planets with atmospheres, so this scanning trick should also create some new photo opportunities

 

[Zenith]

I've not seen a moon IN a ring, but I've seen a number skimming the outer edge and moving at WHOA! mph.

If you see an object rushing towards you, target it then drop out of supercruise when you're within a number of Mm. You should be "locked" to the motion of that object.
I found this out when I was trying to get a semi molten metal rich world to transit it's star. I kept getting "caught up" by the world when it got within a certain distance and dragged along with it.

 

[xondk]

wow necro mispost.