Exoplanet discovery trip

[buksida]

Thought I'd post my trip report here with updates on findings. This is my first foray into exploring and I've started out in a Hauler (didn't have the coin for an Asp).

First stop on my galactic tour is the first earth sized planet discovered in the Goldilocks zone, Kepler 186f, about 490 ly from Sol. Here it is, rather Mars like in appearance, and named Kepler-186 5 in E:D.

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Think I'll 'park' here for the night!

[buksida]

Today's leg takes me to Kepler 10c (E:D= Kepler-10 2), 17 times heavier than Earth but only 2.7 masses, in the tenth system observed by the Kepler telescope.

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Then on to Kepler 220a (E:D= 220 2)to watch the sunrise before turning in for the night.

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[buksida]

The inherent beauty and danger of ED ... I left the ship powered down a few nanolightseconds out of the orbital range of Kepler 220-d so now my choices after a day slaving over a luke-warm keyboard in a frosty orifice, and a few hours after work mingling with the same double faced bipedal inhabitants at the local starport are; 1) Go back out and attempt to mingle with the now triple breasted glitterati. 2) Go to bed and try to sleep with a belly full of Draconian Spice Meade or 3) Crack that urine-recyc/spacewine I've left in the cargo bay for three weeks, power up the thrusters, get the frame shift drive online, pull up my trusty gal-map and head further west – if west even means anything when you're 180 parsecs from the rock you were born on!

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[LionOfNarnia]

a luke-warm keyboard in a frosty orifice

Now that's a mental image I'm sure you didn't intend to conjure up, dude

- But excellent reporting, keep it up

[buksida]

Well the Spice Meade gave way to recyc/wine and I kicked another 300 or so light years, finally managed to de-flower a few stars and get my name on them, and did a wee bit of ice dancing ...

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... before succumbing and falling in love with a big pink beauty called Kepler 174c ...

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And there I shall power down down for the night ...

[Mortis65]

Very nice pics. Well done. Thank you for sharing those.

[buksida]

Well I'd been in stasis for over two weeks so it was time to vanquish that primordial fear that I would wake up floating in space - and get back on the road.

A short hop took me to Kepler 62, a five planet system 1,200 ly from Sol with two super-earths in the habitable zone. Here is a close up of one of them, Kepler 62e (4 on E:D) a water-world 1.6 Earth radii.

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The closer to the star to catch Kepler 62c dropping behind its big brother 62d.

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Good to be back in the cockpit!

[buksida]

On with the journey to seek out more interesting exoplanets. More stars are turning up 'undiscovered' now as I'm venturing further so I'm happy to christen them.

Some big storms on this Mars-like world.

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Twin planets that I discovered in my name.

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Final resting place for the night, the stunningly beautiful Kepler 169 c (2 on E:D).

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[buksida]

With the deep space holiday festivities over it was time to continue with the trip. Onward to Kepler 331 b.

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Discovered this grey looking Jupiter world on the way to Sadr A.

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Resting place for the time being is my first nebula in the Sadr Sector, 1,830 ly from Sol.

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[Vespyr]

Beautiful shots! Visiting exoplanets is a great theme for exploration. Kepler 169 c is stunning. I don't think I've ever seen banding patterns like that on a gas giant of all the ones I've encountered so far. Thanks for sharing.