NYND 3308: Day 45
16 Feb 2022Helios Eusebio
February 16, 330814:25:37 UGT
Lunar Hyperlight, Plimbeau ZE-R e4-2732 2 F A (Purple Rings)
MET: 44:20:06:27
Tonight we're doing another mission for Cannon research. They've asked us to take a look at a stellar remnant called the Virulent Nebula. At just over 1,100 ly away it's a quick trip down the highway. Cannon wants us to fill in some blanks but this can also help us out in our mission as well. We're going to compare Purple Rings to Virulent, what similarities there are between the two nebula.
Some news from Federal space: it seems President Hudson's proposal to rescind his term limits is going over about as well as you'd expect. Hudson's cabinet and supporters alike argue that the Federation is facing a tumultuous period and he alone can fix it (where have I heard that before?). His opponents point out that POTF deciding to just stay in office for life is a step closer to dictatorship from democracy and goes against what the Federal Accord is supposed to stand for. No comment from Shadow President Winters yet, though rumors of her forcing a vote of no confidence have begun to surface.
I'm torn on this. On one hand, I don't want to see Hudson made President for life since I wouldn't want to see anyone make that claim. That wasn't how we did things back in the US of A and it's not how things should be done now. Not to mention a more militaristic Federation could pose a big problem for independent factions in their backyard, like Alchemy Den. So any attempt to head that off is a welcome one. On the other hand, Winters has been gunning for Hudson's job for years, so forgive me if I don't think her motives are entirely altruistic.
Either way, we can worry about that later. Right now, we have a remnant to visit.
16:51:49
Challenger, Dryao Chraei MI-S e4-35 2 B (Malis) (33.8540, -41.4912)
MET: 44:22:32:39
The first thing you notice about the Virulent Nebula? The colors.
It's easy to see why the nebula got its name, its bright colors and overall shape make it resemble a virus. Its appearance also reminds me somewhat of the Crab Nebula; an oval shape punctuated by filaments that corkscrew through space. Clearly a Supernova remnant, it's very interesting how different it looks from Purple Rings, which has more of a dumbbell shape. Given that both nebulae have a Black Hole in the middle it's all but certain that both were formed in a Type II core-collapse Supernova, which doesn't account for the differing shapes. A possible clue lies in the different colorations: the strong red and hint of green in Virulent suggests a strong presence of Hydrogen and Oxygen. It's therefore possible that two very different stars made these nebulas, even if their ultimate fate was identical.
The Black Hole is a stellar-mass one weighing in at 3 Solar masses and is 260 million years old, putting it in family with most of the stars in the core. Something that I find odd is that both the Black Holes at Virulent and Purple Rings aren't more massive than they are. There's a lot of material in these emission nebulae and you'd expect some of it to be drawn into the Black Holes, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Most likely the debris from the progenitor stars are still accelerating far too quickly for the gravity of the Black Hole to pull them back, meaning they will have to get their food from another source.
Much like Purple Rings, there are a pair of Class Y ringed Brown Dwarfs (Y5V and Y3V) orbiting the Black Hole. We've seen this across several Black Hole systems now and I'm starting to wonder if there's some sort of correlation. Class Y's are the coldest of the Brown Dwarfs and one could argue that they're closer to Gas Giants than they are stars. Maybe these Brown Dwarfs originally were Gas Giants that were affected by the Supernova? If we can theorize that the rings were formed by debris from planets and moons that were annihilated in the explosion, is it reasonable to assume that some of the ejected gas and dust from the dying star was also absorbed? It's an interesting theory, to be sure, but there's no real way of proving it. It could also be that there's a lot of Brown Dwarfs in this part of the galaxy and their presence around Black Holes is merely because they were there when the progenitor star died.
Each of the Brown Dwarfs has a smattering of planets orbiting them and there are two other planets further out. As we expected, the planets closest to Brown Dwarfs are rocky and the ones father out are icy. Between the loss of the progenitor star and the low heat radiated from the Brown Dwarfs, there's not much warmth to be had in this system. Even the view from the surface is very bleak and dark. This is in stark contrast to other Brown Dwarfs which were able to give off at least some light, which suggests that these two are running out of fuel.
Biological signs were detected on the second planet of the Class Y3V. The planet, which we have named Malis, is a rather small body with a radius of just 949 km, about half that of Luna, and a surface gravity of .11 G. The surface temperature ranges from 74 to 145 Kelvin and despite being tidally locked on it's 1.4 Earth day orbit, the planet is almost entirely dark. We also detected a 100% Methane atmosphere which was 8% as dense as Earth's, a bit on the higher side of the tenuous atmosphere's we've observed. We picked up signs of geological activity and quickly theorized that this was the reason for the density, opting to land to confirm this for ourselves.
In spite of the darkness, Malis has proven to be very active. We landed in a literal field of fumaroles, vents and lava spouts that easily stretched on for a couple kilometers. I've only ever seen a couple fields like this across the galaxy. It remains to be seen if this is just an isolated area on the surface or if the entire planet is covered in fields such as this one. My money is on the latter.
We even discovered a new species, much to Carlton's astonishment. The codex calls it "Fumerola Extremus" and as the name suggests, they're found on fumaroles. From what we can tell they're a species of flora that has evolved to survive without photosynthesis, instead relying entirely on chemo and thermosynthesis to obtain their nutrients, which would explain their appearance on fumaroles. They appear to derive their nutrients directly from the ejecta and thanks to the heat produced by the fumaroles they can survive in otherwise freezing cold temperatures.
While we've previously suspected that certain flora may have a correlation with geological activity, this is the first time we've come across one with a direct link. We're wondering though what it is about these types of fumaroles that are leading to the gestation of these plants? We've seen Silicate Vapor volcanism before, but we haven't seem Fumerola until now. In fact, there are some fumaroles with no plants on them at all while others have several. It seems like there's another mechanism that determines if conditions are apt for their formation, the question is what?
Malis has suddenly become a very interesting world and it looks like we're going to need to spend a little longer here before heading back to Lunar Hyperlight. Just as well, we might as well camp out at least one more time before the expedition is over.