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What space object do you find the most interesting? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 2 weeks ago by AmosBurton_ThatGuy@lemmy.ca to c/space@lemmy.world

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Personally, I find Brown Dwarfs to be absolutely fascinating. An object that isn't quite a planet and isn't quite a star, but something in between.

What would one even look like? Would it look like a gas giant that's glowing red, along with swirls of gas in its atmosphere like Jupiter? Or would it resemble a star and have a fiery surface like the sun? I prefer to imagine them as glowing gas giants but I don't know how realistic that is.

Gas giants in general are fascinating to me as well, I really hope we send a probe into one of the gas giants with a camera before I die. I'd absolutely love to see what it looks like inside a gas giants atmosphere before the probe gets crushed by the increasing pressure as it descends.

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[-] mjhelto@lemm.ee 3 points 2 weeks ago

I love space phenomenon in the same way as some people like scary movies, games, and environments. I feel a strong sense of dread and fear at the thought of black holes, white dwarfs, and neutron stars. It's less about what you can see, and more about what you can't.

It's so bad that the most anxious and scared I've been in my life was on one of my first times using the FSD boost in the game Elite: Dangerous. In the game you can get boost to your ships travel by sucking up the streaming jets jutting out from white dwarfs and neutron stars. This boost can let you travel over 100ly, when average is 30ly or so. The process to do this, if done incorrectly however, can result in getting ripped out of cruising, stick, and unable to get away from these very disorienting beams before getting absolutely shredded. I have experienced nothing like it before or since.

To this day, neutron stars are both my favorite and most anxiety inducing universal phenomena! Slaughter House 5 is a really good book involving a neutron star, for those who haven't read it.

[-] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

I still forget how to tell white dwarfs from neutron stars. Both can charge you, but I think it's white dwarfs that have 1/4 the jet range for like 1/2 the boost. Basically a deadly waste of time. But I don't really go far. I have an icy Dolphin that can park in the normal star scoop zone and stay cool indefinitely, so the boost benefit isn't worth it to me. But I do enjoy that empty dread of the vastness of space and the inconceivable size of celestial bodies.

And of course the dread from the excellent sound design surrounding the Thargoids, the alien enemies you can seek out. But that's normal dread.

You ever land on mitterand hollow? Or rather, you ever let the moon known as mitterand hollow land on you? That's an experience. It's actually incredibly safe due to the spatial reframing, but good luck convincing your brain

[-] mjhelto@lemm.ee 1 points 1 week ago

I think the time I couldn't escape was a white dwarf, which I didn't realize was so much more dangerous than normal neutron stars. As for Mitterand Hollow, no, I have not been there, but there was a list of places to see, which I had managed about half the list before I moved on to a new goal. I had an expedition to the galactic core in progress when I lost interest in playing. It was just taking too long to scan for planets and get surface info for the ones that yielded the most data/money. I should pick it back up, here, and see if I can complete my journey.

[-] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Lucky for most, it's a local inhabited system. Unlucky for you, it doesn't sound like you're local.

Sounds like you may have been out for a few years. A lot has changed. I did drop it about 6 months ago, but the major things are: exploration pays now! But pretty much only if you have the Odyssey expansion for on-foot gameplay to search tirelessly for bacteria. Thargoids now have a powerplay-like mechanic and are actively attacking inhabited systems. They're avoidable though.

As for getting back to the bubble, you may be able to find a carrier passing by to hitch a ride. Did you play recently enough to have seen fleet carriers? Another player directs it and can transport your ship while you're offline. Just remember to deboard on time!

I don't have a carrier, but can help get you on your way if needed. I love the lore of the game and can enjoy the mechanics, but I have a real life to tend to so I get it.

[-] Lightrider@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 weeks ago

Primordial black holes and rogue planets.

[-] psycho_driver@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

I've been pretty interested in Uranus for a while.

[-] niktemadur@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

The thought of Quark Stars have fascinated me ever since I first read about them, about maybe fifteen years ago, a supernova remnant that is dense enough to overcome neutron degeneracy pressure, not dense enough to become a singularity.

The Cosmic Microwave Background was emitted when the Universe was around 370,000 years old, the oldest light in the Universe but the way space expands and accelerates, the distance at which the photons we detect now were emitted and when they reach us, is all distorted and crazily stretched. If you want to visualize how light moves as slow as a snail in the grand scheme of things, look no further.

Neutrinos, as far as we know the closest a particle with mass approaches zero, to the infinitesimal point that it's thought it doesn't derive its' mass from the Higgs Field. Then there's the as-yet elusive Cosmic Neutrino Background, emitted when the Universe was less than a second old.