Updates to the Sol System

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

I've updated the Sol system, adding the dwarf planets and correcting the density, gravity, mass and escape velocity for all the major moons.

The new dwarf planets added are Ceres, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, Orcus, Quaoar and Sedna. As they have such long orbital periods I have used their current distance from the Sun rather than their average distance. Pluto is also now classed as a dwarf planet. Those planets and any planets that used to be listed as "Chunks" will now be listed as dwarf planets in the F9 view. I considered adding the moons for the new dwarf planets but the data on them is extremely limited so I haven't for the moment. I'll probably come back and tackle that at some point though.

There were some significant mistakes in the physical data for many of the existing moons. In fact, some were so wrong I can't imagine where I got the original information. I have used the Wikipaedia entry for each moon to source the updated information. This will result in some changes in terms of possible colonization as Titan's gravity has dropped considerably.

After Mars/Mercury at 0.38g, the highest gravity can be found on:

Io: 0.183
Luna: 0.165
Ganymede: 0.146
Titan: 0.140
Europa: 0.134
Callisto: 0.126
Eris: 0.084
Triton: 0.079
Pluto: 0.067
Haumea: 0.044
Sedna: 0.043
Makemake: 0.041
Titania: 0.039
Quaoar: 0.038
Oberon: 0.035

To make life a little more interesting, I am going to widen the range of racial gravity tolerances possible for a new race. A random race will have from 50% to 90%. Humans will start with 90%, which makes the Moon, Titan and the Galilean moons all possible colony sites and will widen human options in other systems. I've also halved the "Genome Sequence: Base Gravity" research costs.

In the past the mean surface temperature of the Earth in Aurora has been 22C. I've now changed it to the correct value of 14C. I've also increased the base human temperature range from 22C to 24C, giving a range of -10C to 38C, which seems reasonable in terms of the environments in which humans live in Earth. -10C might be a little on the chilly side but we can survive reasonably well without space-age infrastructure to assist.

Finally, I have updated the Known System data in Aurora with the work I did for Newtonian Aurora. There are now 4250 Known Systems in the database, including all known systems within 100 LY of Sol.

Steve

[metalax]

Very nice. Makes it a lot easier to do the outer system colonies vs earth/inner system game that I'd been thinking of doing.

Any chance of getting the correct images assigned to each planet/major moon? While minor and we can do it ourselves, it is a litle annoyng having to do it each time starting a new game, and I keep getting the images for the moons mixed up.

[Marthnn]

I really appreciate the increase in accuracy of Sol bodies. It gives a good perspective on our own home system. Having Humans as reference race is nice too. Thanks Steve.

[Erik L]

In the past the mean surface temperature of the Earth in Aurora has been 22C. I've now changed it to the correct value of 14C.

Global warming my arse

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Very nice. Makes it a lot easier to do the outer system colonies vs earth/inner system game that I'd been thinking of doing.

Any chance of getting the correct images assigned to each planet/major moon? While minor and we can do it ourselves, it is a litle annoyng having to do it each time starting a new game, and I keep getting the images for the moons mixed up.

I have updated the images. There will be 3-4 new ones in the patch for those that were missing.

Steve

[Corik]

I made a custom planetjpeg folder for my games with some real images for Sol planets and most important moons. I also changed the default random planet/moon images. I will share it with you if that helps for something.

The real planet and moons are named after the first or last 3 letters of their name, as Aurora only admit 3 letters. I hope you may find it useful.

File name: Planetjpeg.rar File size: 3.49 MB

[Zed 6]

I vote to keep Pluto as a major planet in the Sol System for Aurora as the IAU definition is not as widely accepted by astonomers as the IAU would like you to believe. The definition of a Dwarf Planet is flawed and not quite scientific or logical. It has been known as a planet for more than 75 years, and to change its status with a poor definition and process, is bad science. Just my 2 cents. Leave the others as Dwarf planets or Kuiper belt objects. I also think we risk upsetting the Plutonians when they find out .....After all these years and they suddenly find out they are not living on a planet ....They might turn nasty ...

[Rastaman]

Pluto will remain as a regular planetary object on the map, only the classification in the system details window changes. Like in real life.

The Fungi from Yuggoth do not follow out puny civilization's antics anyway.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Another change. It turns out that planets have been orbiting in the wrong direction all this time

They should orbit anti-clockwise (counter-clockwise for the US) but until now they have been orbiting clockwise - oops!

As Aurora Lagrange points are at the L5 location, they will still be following planets in their orbit but the change in orbital direction for v5.70 means they will be on the other side of the planet from where they are now (i.e clockwise from planetary location rather than anti-clockwise).

Steve

[Moonshadow101]

It's fine. We were just looking at the galactic plane from the other side.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

It's fine. We were just looking at the galactic plane from the other side.

LOL! Excellent point!

Steve

[Garfunkel]

Oh, these changes sound good!

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Another Sol Update. Long ago, I created the existing Sol - Mars asteroid belt in the current Sol system by generating systems until I got a suitable asteroid belt at the right distance and then transplanting it into the Sol system in the database. Saved all the entry of asteroid data

However, now I am on a Update Sol campaign I decided to got for something a little better. I removed the 179 Mars - Jupiter asteroids from the DB and replaced them with over 300 actual asteroids from Sol, with the correct names, sizes, distances and physical data (gravity, escape velocity, etc.). Within these 300+ new asteroids are regular Mars - Jupiter main belt asteroids, a number of Jupiter trojans (which occupy the area around the L4 and L5 lagrange points of Jupiter, some near-Earth asteroids, such as Apophis, Apollo, Cruithne, etc., a few Neptune trojans and several Centaurs located between the orbits of Jupiter and Neptune. This makes the inner Sol system a much more interesting place.

I've spent the last two evenings entering asteroids on to a spreadsheet before importing them into Access. A serious sign of uber-geekness is that I actually enjoyed tracking down all the data . Now I need to recharge my enthusiasm batteries before tackling the outer system objects and perhaps some real comets for Sol instead of the random ones.

Here are a couple of screenshots. The first shows the main belt, near-Earth and Jupiter Trojan asteroids. The second shows the Centaurs and the Neptune Trojans

[dgibso29]

Two things:

One, I love these progress updates!

Two, I hate you for these progress updates! I want to start a new campaign, but I know that the moment I do, you'll release this update!

I am looking forward to the new Sol.

[Marthnn]

I removed the 179 Mars - Jupiter asteroids from the DB and replaced them with over 300 actual asteroids from Sol, with the correct names, sizes, distances and physical data (gravity, escape velocity, etc.).

*looks at screenshot*

Oh. Man. I already imagine myself trying not to mix small moons such as Saturn's Iapetus with asteroids having names like Laetita.

Another big thanks. I'll certainly start a new campaign next version. Can't wait!