Vera "Not A Werewolf" Lycaon

so, we may have found our first moon orbiting another planet? advances.sciencemag.org/lens/a

it isn't confirmed yet (much like between the first detection of an exoplanet {1988} and the first confirmed one {1992, or '95 if we're talking main sequence stars}, this'll take years), but the evidence so far is well in favor of the object in question being a moon instead of a planet and honestly I'm excited as hell for this?

1+
Vera "Not A Werewolf" Lycaon

sure it's literally the easiest possible object to find of its type (a neptune-sized gas giant orbiting a superjovian at a great distance), but the fact that we've found something like this at all is kind of amazing

also it's a fucking -small gas giant orbiting another, larger gas giant-. that may very well have formed in place. if that's confirmed that bodes super well for finding like, actual habitable moons around gas giants in the future

1+
the Hearth :ms_agender_flag:

@Thaminga a gas giant orbiting a gas giant, I wonder if the smaller one also has moons and if so just how deep orbital mechanics will physically let you go. Moons orbiting moons orbiting moons.

1
Vera "Not A Werewolf" Lycaon

@Felthry I could definitely see four steps down happening (massive, almost-brown-dwarf gas giant -> small gas giant -> Mars-sized rocky moon -> tiny asteroidlike moonlet), though that would take a pretty huge system to really work out and sheer luck to actually like, exist

maybe around like, a type A or B star

1+
always impermanent

@Thaminga @Felthry Now I'm wishing I'd taken screenshots of some of the buck-wild systems I've seen in Elite Dangerous (which claims to do a rough modeling of system accretion).

Here's one I found on a list of nearby Interesting Systems: edsm.net/en/system/bodies/id/2

1+
the Hearth :ms_agender_flag:

@starkatt @Thaminga we should really try elite dangerous sometime, supposedly it's pretty good

1
always impermanent

@Felthry @Thaminga I enjoyed it a lot! It's very, very pretty and gives a sense of scale I haven't seen anywhere else.

1+
the Hearth :ms_agender_flag:

@starkatt @Thaminga I'd expect a similar sense of scale as No Man's Sky?

Kerbal Space Program also does a pretty good job of making you realize how big space is but that's just one solar system and a pretty small one at that

1
always impermanent

@Felthry @Thaminga Oh NMS left me *really* disappointed in terms of system modeling after coming from ED.

1
the Hearth :ms_agender_flag:
Follow

@starkatt @Thaminga it does leave a bit to be desired but I can understand it for gameplay reasons

· · 1 · 0 · 0
always impermanent

@Felthry @Thaminga Yeah in Elite systems are Actual Size. You superluminal cruise faster when away from gravity wells but things like a distant binary can take ages to fly to.

Also there's the literal entire milky way galaxy to explore. hundreds of millions of systems.

1
always impermanent

@Felthry @Thaminga This is how far I traveled, after 100 hours of gameplay, a good chunk of which was spent on long-rage exploration.

1+
the Hearth :ms_agender_flag:

@starkatt @Thaminga I mean, that's a _really long way_ to go in only 100 hours!

1
always impermanent

@Felthry @Thaminga That was with a max jump range of somewhere a bit under 50LY.

1
always impermanent

@Felthry @Thaminga That circle is a path, not an area.

0
always impermanent

@Felthry @Thaminga If you really hustle you can do several jumps per minute. Even then it takes weeks of travel for dedicated players to get to Sagittarius A*.

1
the Hearth :ms_agender_flag:

@starkatt @Thaminga The question remains: is it worth the time and effort to get there?

1
always impermanent

@Felthry @Thaminga Depends on what you find fun?

1
the Hearth :ms_agender_flag:

@starkatt @Thaminga fair point!

1
always impermanent

@Felthry @Thaminga Go exploring and you can see some really beautiful things. Here's a (extremely remote) ring outpost in the Sadr Region nebula about 1.8kLY from Sol, with the North American and Pelican Nebulae in the background.

There's another screenshot from inside a planetary nebula that I haven't shared because I want to keep it *mine*.

1
always impermanent

@Felthry @Thaminga And it all feels a lot more special when you have to really go a long ways for it, y'know?

Also uhh I realize now I kinda hijacked the thread. Apologies if that was obnoxious.

0
Vloelei, Hopeful Animal ​:therian:​

@starkatt @Felthry @Thaminga SPACE
FOX

1
Vloelei, Hopeful Animal ​:therian:​

@starkatt @Felthry @Thaminga Yeah, ED is seriously something I've been wanting to check out. They do some amazing, fascinating stuff

0
Sign in to participate in the conversation
Awoo Space

Awoo.space is a Mastodon instance where members can rely on a team of moderators to help resolve conflict, and limits federation with other instances using a specific access list to minimize abuse.

While mature content is allowed here, we strongly believe in being able to choose to engage with content on your own terms, so please make sure to put mature and potentially sensitive content behind the CW feature with enough description that people know what it's about.

Before signing up, please read our community guidelines. While it's a very broad swath of topics it covers, please do your best! We believe that as long as you're putting forth genuine effort to limit harm you might cause – even if you haven't read the document – you'll be okay!

Trending now

Resources

Developers

What is Mastodon?

awoo.space

  • v3.5.3+glitch

More…

v3.5.3+glitch · Privacy policy