Beyond the Loop
27 Jul 2017Robert Phillips
Now that I had reached the other side of Barnard's Loop, I had to decide where to go next. It is tempting to be underwhelmed by the sights beyond Barnard's Loop, due to it being somewhat more empty than what had been seen up until now. But that would be a mistake, as the galaxy has no shortage of wonderful sights if you keep an open mind.So, I first decide to head 'South', towards the start of the Perseus Transit. This would take me through several nebulae and interesting systems.
First up - HIP 28172. This system is home to a gigantic Carbon C class star 76 times larger than Sol. It is interesting for it's a ringed landable planet a mere 290 LS from the main star. This star dominates the horizon from the surface of the planet and provides a wonderful view from the planet's surface, as well from within the ring system itself:
At over 5000LY from Sol, is Pheia Ain OQ-Y d42 AB 2 A. It has icy blue patches on it's surface with some nice terrain, and a great view of the ringed High Metal Content world it orbits:
Contiuing in this general direction takes me to the Jellyfish Nebula (AKA IC 443). At the heart of this nebula is the neutron star CXOU J061705.3+222127, the collapsed remnant of the stellar core:
Whilst exploring this region of space, i came across a fast orbiting planet at Gludgeia VO-Z D7 AB 1. It orbits a binary star system at 18.9 LS distance every 1.2 days. That means it travels 35,601,004.35 km orbital circumference every 29 hours (104,400 secs). This gives it a speed of 341 km/s (or 1,227,621 km/h):
In the video clip below, at 1 min from the start for 3.5 mins it travels a distance of 71,610 km. Compare that to earth which travels at a leisurely 108,000 km/h, and so would have only travelled 6,300 km over the same period:
I started to make my way to the Rosette Nebula, and stopped by a system (Col 107 Sector VP-O E6-3) with several ringed planets, which made for some great views:
I also 'discovered' several earth-like worlds and terraformable water worlds on the way. My next destination was the Rosette Nebula.