totm may 2020 [1.8.1] Real Exoplanets v0.9.6 [04/03/2020]

[Andi K.]

 

About Real Exoplanets

Real Exoplanets (REX) is planet pack that adds several confirmed exoplanets into KSP. As the name implies, all of these exoplanets are real, and all of the planetary systems are located exactly where they are in real life. All of the planets have accurate characteristics and the visual appearance of all exoplanets are based off of our current understanding of planetary science (as well as some artistic license when necessary ). Real Exoplanets is compatible with both Real Solar System and the stock, default solar system. With RSS, REX is properly scaled by a factor of 10.

DOWNLOAD ON SPACEDOCK OR ON GITHUB

Exoplanet List

Below is a list of all of the exoplanet systems added into the game by Real Exoplanets.

Spoiler

• Alpha Centauri
  • Alpha Centauri A
  • Alpha Centauri B
  • Proxima Centauri
    • Proxima Centauri b
• Barnard's Star
  • Barnard b
• Tau Ceti
  • Tau Ceti g
  • Tau Ceti h
  • Tau Ceti e
  • Tau Ceti f
• Teegarden's Star
  • Teegarden b
  • Teegarden c
• TRAPPIST-1
  • TRAPPIST-1b
  • TRAPPIST-1c
  • TRAPPIST-1d
  • TRAPPIST-1e
  • TRAPPIST-1f
  • TRAPPIST-1g
  • TRAPPIST-1h

Screenshots

Spoiler

Proxima Centauri b

 

Barnard b

 

Tau Ceti g

 

Teegarden c

 

TRAPPIST-1f

Sources

Spoiler

GENERAL
"Earth Fact Sheet": https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html
"Sun Fact Sheet": https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/sunfact.html
"Photochemical Haze Formation in the Atmospheres of Super-Earths and Mini-Neptunes": https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/aac883
"Stabilizing Cloud Feedback Dramatically Expands the Habitable Zone of Tidally Locked Planets":https://arxiv.org/pdf/1307.0515v1.pdf
"Validation of the new Hipparcos reduction": https://arxiv.org/pdf/0708.1752.pdf
"Geothermal heating enhances atmospheric asymmetries on synchronously rotating planets": https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.0186

PROXIMA CENTAURI
"Proxima’s orbit around α Centauri": https://arxiv.org/pdf/1611.03495.pdf
"Optical and infrared photometry of dwarf M and K stars": http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1990A%26A...235..335D
"First radius measurements of very low mass stars with the VLTI": https://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0211647.pdf
"Calculations of periodicity from Hα profiles of Proxima Centauri": https://arxiv.org/pdf/1608.07834.pdf
"The Habitability of Proxima Centauri b: II: Environmental States and Observational Discriminants": https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1608/1608.08620.pdf
"A terrestrial planet candidate in a temperate orbit around Proxima Centauri": https://www.nature.com/articles/nature19106

ALPHA CENTAURI
"Constraining the difference in convective blueshift between the components of α Cen with precise radial velocities": https://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0202400.pdf
"Asteroseismology and calibration of α Cen binary system": https://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0206283.pdf
"The radii and limb darkenings of α Centauri A and B": https://arxiv.org/pdf/1610.06185.pdf
"Asteroseismology of α Cen A": https://arxiv.org/pdf/0706.1682.pdf
"X-ray, FUV, and UV observations of α Centauri B": https://arxiv.org/pdf/1009.1652.pdf

BARNARD'S STAR
"Barnard's Star and the M Dwarf Temperature Scale": https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/383289
"Photometry of Proxima Centauri and Barnard’s Star Using HST Fine Guidance Sensor 3": https://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/9806276.pdf
"A candidate super-Earth planet orbiting near the snow line of Barnard’s star": https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1811/1811.05955.pdf

TEEGARDEN'S STAR
"A 3D Search for Companions to 12 Nearby M-Dwarfs": https://arxiv.org/pdf/1501.05012.pdf
"The Solar Neighborhood XXXII: The Hydrogen Burning Limit": https://arxiv.org/pdf/1312.1736.pdf
"Metallicity and Temperature Indicators in M dwarf K band Spectra: Testing New & Updated Calibrations With Observations of 133 Solar Neighborhood M dwarfs": https://arxiv.org/pdf/1112.4567.pdf
"Teegarden's Star": http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=NAME+Teegarden's+star
"Two temperate Earth-mass planet candidates around Teegarden’s Star": https://arxiv.org/pdf/1906.07196.pdf

TAU CETI
"Solar-like oscillations in the G8 V star τ Ceti": https://arxiv.org/pdf/0811.3989.pdf
"Selection criteria for targets of asteroseismic campaigns": https://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0303032.pdf
"Are beryllium abundances anomalous in stars with giant planets?": https://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0408108.pdf
"Magnetic field and rotation in lower main-sequence stars: An empirical time-dependent magnetic Bode’s relation?": https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/309891/pdf
"Signals embedded in the radial velocity noise": https://arxiv.org/pdf/1212.4277.pdf
"The Debris Disk of Solar Analogue τ Ceti: Herschel Observations and Dynamical Simulations of the Proposed Multiplanet System": https://arxiv.org/pdf/1408.2791.pdf

TRAPPIST-1
"Evolved Climates and Observational Discriminants for the TRAPPIST-1 Planetary System": https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aae36a/pdf
"The nature of the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets": https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.01377.pdf
"Early 2017 observations of TRAPPIST-1 with Spitzer": https://arxiv.org/pdf/1801.02554.pdf
"Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1": https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1703/1703.01424.pdf
"Atmospheric reconnaissance of the habitable-zone Earth-sized planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1": https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-017-0374-z
"Disentangling the Planet from the Star in Late-Type M Dwarfs: A Case Study of TRAPPIST-1g": https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/aaf04d/meta

Changelog

Spoiler

• 0.9.6 (04 March 2020)
  • New 1.8.1 terrain shaders for all terrestrial planets
  • Improved PQS for all terrestrial planets
  • Updated "atmosphere from ground"
  • Added Proxima Centauri c
• 0.9.4 (09 February 2020)
  • Fixed TRAPPIST-1h transit times
  • Added ability to enable and disable particular systems in the REX settings file
  • Added custom sun flares without scattterer
  • Fixed Teegarden b scatterer ocean color
  • Foamy, super-critical CO2 oceans on TRAPPIST-1b
  • Fixed time warp altitudes and made them change depending on the user-defined scale factors
  • Fixed Generic_Biome.dds breaking everything in 1.8.1
• 0.9.3 (29 December 2019)
  • Updated textures for Teegarden b, Barnard b and Proxima Centauri b
  • Players can enable or disable stock-alike names in the REX settings file
  • Fixed issue with certain planets appearing extremely bright
  • New descriptions for planets that did not have them, and edited previous descriptions
  • Planet-specific biome maps for all terrestrial planets
  • Tweaked atmo gradients
  • Fixed TRAPPIST-1f and Tau Ceti e ocean depths
• 0.9.1 (9 December 2019)
  • Updated to KSP 1.7.3
  • Players can now change the distance to stars in the REX settings file
  • Better atmo gradients
  • Added terrain presets
  • Fixed OnDemand implementation
• 0.9 (7 December 2019)
  • Beta release

Credits

• Squad for KSP of course
• @Thomas P. for Kopernicus
• @NathanKell for Real Solar System
• @Pkmniako for being my original inspiration to begin planet modding
• @ProtoJeb21 for helping me for ages to recreate real life exoplanets that have accurate characteristics

Check out this video of someone traveling to Proxima Centauri in Real Exoplanets:

License: All Rights Reserved

Edited April 11, 2020 by AndrewDraws

[SystemPlanningCorporation]

Thank you soooo much

I don't have to develop real stars anymore.

[Andi K.]

Some of what I've been working on:

TRAPPIST-1d

TRAPPIST-1e

TRAPPIST-1f

TRAPPIST-1g

 

[ssd21345]

looks cool! looking forward to download these planet (I have solar system mod creep lol)

[OOM]

Please do not reduce the distance to the stars. Have the children download The World Beyond if they want affordable star systems. Do you understand that your future mod is unique in this? There are many other “simplified” mods, so don't be silly, please. My KSP Real Solar System + Interstellar and 30 other mods (for freezing, bases, etc.) are waiting for your wonderful mod! Conquer the stars for real! 

 

[Andi K.]

20 hours ago, OOM said:

Please do not reduce the distance to the stars. Have the children download The World Beyond if they want affordable star systems. Do you understand that your future mod is unique in this? There are many other “simplified” mods, so don't be silly, please. My KSP Real Solar System + Interstellar and 30 other mods (for freezing, bases, etc.) are waiting for your wonderful mod! Conquer the stars for real! 

 

The thing is that I don't want everything to be so far that it's inaccessible or impractical to most players

[OOM]

1 hour ago, AndrewDraws said:

Дело в том, что я не хочу, чтобы все было так далеко, чтобы это было недоступно или непрактично для большинства игроков

Make two versions of the mod - one with a real scale, and the other a simplified one. Is it possible?

[FreeThinker]

On 8/12/2019 at 7:09 AM, OOM said:

Make two versions of the mod - one with a real scale, and the other a simplified one. Is it possible?

It would be best if there was some way to configure it like what is done with

But a simple configure optional  file would be enough I think

Edited August 13, 2019 by FreeThinker

[Sigma88]

it should be pretty easy to set up a cfg to make SD rescale this mod, something like Galileo's Rescale mod https://github.com/Galileo88/Rescale

[Andi K.]

On 8/12/2019 at 1:09 AM, OOM said:

Make two versions of the mod - one with a real scale, and the other a simplified one. Is it possible?

It would be relatively easy for me to add a REX settings file where you can set your own scale factor for stellar distances. That's not the problem. The problem is that if I place any stars beyond 50 real life light years, it causes some serious bugs that cannot be avoided. However, if I scale down the distances by 100, that would allow me to add objects up to 5000 ly away without anything being beyond 50 real light years away (since 5000 divided by the scale factor (100) equals 50). So the question is: do I scale everything down by some number to allow me to add stuff beyond 50 ly, or do I allow the user to define a scale factor that must be less than or equal to one, and limit myself to stars within 50 ly?

Edited August 13, 2019 by AndrewDraws

[Space Nerd]

I actually liked the proxima b in the old constellation mod more(I know it's more unrealistic, but the water terra version is cooler).

[Andi K.]

3 hours ago, Space Nerd said:

I actually liked the proxima b in the old constellation mod more(I know it's more unrealistic, but the water terra version is cooler).

I'll probably reuse the old texture for some other planet down the road

[Andi K.]

Teegarden b and c

[OOM]

20 hours ago, AndrewDraws said:

It would be relatively easy for me to add a REX settings file where you can set your own scale factor for stellar distances. That's not the problem. The problem is that if I place any stars beyond 50 real life light years, it causes some serious bugs that cannot be avoided. However, if I scale down the distances by 100, that would allow me to add objects up to 5000 ly away without anything being beyond 50 real light years away (since 5000 divided by the scale factor (100) equals 50). So the question is: do I scale everything down by some number to allow me to add stuff beyond 50 ly, or do I allow the user to define a scale factor that must be less than or equal to one, and limit myself to stars within 50 ly?

Better limit the distance to 50 light years.
There are many interesting star systems in this range.
From my memory I can name: Alpha \ Proxima Centauri, the star of Barnard, Ross 128, Tau Ceti, Epsilon Eridana, 40 Eridana, Gliese 876, Gliese 832, Gliese 581 and many others.

Edited August 14, 2019 by OOM

[OOM]

On 8/14/2019 at 12:46 AM, AndrewDraws said:

Teegarden b and c

Awesome! The potentially inhabited exoplanets of Teegarden were discovered this year). Could you add some black vegetation in the twilight zone?

[AloE]

sounds (& looks) good :-)  Might you consider one form you release being a .cfg file for atm & textures Kopernicus patch for SLIPPIST1 --> TRAPPIST1 for Principia?  ...being able to compare different planet atm & texture models in the Principia n body model of the TRAPPIST1 system would be insightful & fun.

In case you find it useful, I tend to post links to relevant TRAPPIST1 publications at KerbalEDU Exploration of TRAPPIST-1 since, for my own edification & given the challenges of limited information for M star climate modeling,  overtime I plan to tinker with OhioBob's atmosphere spreadsheets as more data gets published especially if JWST successfully deploys since TRAPPIST1 for Principia currently simply upscales SLIPPIST1 atm models by a multiplication factor (since Principia team's changes focus on their great n body model of the system anyway...not the textures, atmospheres, etc...)...

On 8/8/2019 at 11:07 PM, AndrewDraws said:

Some of what I've been working on:

TRAPPIST-1d

 

Edited August 15, 2019 by AloE
add quote

[Andi K.]

On 8/15/2019 at 4:29 AM, AloE said:

Might you consider one form you release being a .cfg file for atm & textures Kopernicus patch for SLIPPIST1 --> TRAPPIST1 for Principia?

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Do you mind clarifying for me?

On 8/15/2019 at 3:50 AM, OOM said:

Awesome! The potentially inhabited exoplanets of Teegarden were discovered this year). Could you add some black vegetation in the twilight zone?

In Real Exoplanets, neither Teegarden b nor Teegarden c are habitable. I made Teegarden b a cooler version of Venus, cool enough for sulfuric acid oceans to form (that's what the yellow is) but still hot by Earth standards. I made Teegarden c basically a tidally locked super-Mars.

Edited August 26, 2019 by AndrewDraws

[OOM]

5 hours ago, AndrewDraws said:

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Do you mind clarifying for me?

In Real Exoplanets, neither Teegarden b nor Teegarden c are habitable. I made Teegarden b a cooler version of Venus, cool enough for sulfuric acid oceans to form (that's what the yellow is) but still hot by Earth standards. I made Teegarden b basically a tidally locked super-Mars.

I thought it was water ... But will there be at least one inhabited planet in this mod?

Edited August 16, 2019 by OOM

[OOM]

According to new studies, it turned out that the magnetic field of the super-earth will be created not only by the core, but also by the mantle of the planet. This hints that the exact same super-earths around M-type stars will have an atmosphere and the ability to sustain life even under water. Personally, I would suggest using LHS 1140 b as an inhabited planet for several reasons: 1. Located in a residential area. 2. The star itself, although M-type, is quite calm. 3. It has a strong magnetic field (because the mass is 6 Earth masses, and the density is 12.5 g / cm3.

 

Although in 2018 it was discovered that TRAPPIST-1b with a radius and mass like Earth has an atmosphere stronger than that of Venus! And this despite the fact that the planet is already very close to its aggressive star. In 2017, we would have thought that TRAPPIST-1b is something like Mercury without an atmosphere.

Edited August 16, 2019 by OOM

[AloE]

On 8/16/2019 at 2:42 AM, AndrewDraws said:

On 8/15/2019 at 10:29 AM, AloE said:

Might you consider one form you release being a .cfg file for atm & textures Kopernicus patch for SLIPPIST1 --> TRAPPIST1 for Principia?

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Do you mind clarifying for me?

My thinking is that since Principia created a remarkable n-body gravitation model for TRAPPIST1, their work makes a good platform for anyone who spends effort on making textures & atmosphere curves to have a simple MM patch .cfg file to swap in their textures & atm curves, sol luminosity,...especially since research involving the TRAPPIST1 system is likely to continue for several more decades so ideas about what these planets will continue to change...  For mod creators with that in mind...using the celestial body sizes/parameters defined in TRAPPIST1 for Principia would make such a patch relatively easy to make...Principia's patch is already such a folder where they patch the very thoughtful work of SLIPPIST1...the idea I am proposing is an additional folder with the textures & .cfg file that ModuleManager would then patch over SLIPPIST1 & Principia.  In other words the patch is a small separate folder that can be dropped in to a GameData folder a user has already setup to run TRAPPIST1 for Principia (just like we already drop in Principia's patch folder to convert SLIPPIST1 to TRAPPIST1 n-body).  So it is just a separate small 'TRAPPIST1 study folder' that would enable me & anyone else to easily see specifically your TRAPPIST1 work in the Principia n-body model system.  One objective being to help facilitate exploration of the TRAPPIST1 system in particular for those of us interested in that topic,.  I personally would also have another separate GameData folder setup with your great exoplanet mod concept here so I could view your other work on other systems.  Anycase, just an idea for you since you seem to have some nice work going on here :-)  Thanks!

[Andi K.]

1 minute ago, AloE said:

 -- snip --

Why would I need to do all of that when I could just make Real Exoplanets compatible with Principia?

[AloE]

On 8/16/2019 at 8:16 AM, OOM said:

turned out that the magnetic field

have you checked out the induction heating concept (link goes to a list of paper links...see especially (2017) Magma oceans and enhanced volcanism on TRAPPIST-1 planets due to induction heating: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1710.08761.pdf in close packed systems like around M stars? Enjoy!

 

On 8/7/2019 at 11:49 PM, AndrewDraws said:

Distances to stars will likely be scaled down so that they are more accessible, but I have not made a decision so far. Real Exoplanets will be compatible with both Real Solar System and the stock, default solar system

14 minutes ago, AndrewDraws said:

Why would I need to do all of that when I could just make Real Exoplanets compatible with Principia?

That would be awesome...but my understanding is that Principia (or at least some limit in KSP numerical coordinate space {EDIT: regarding Principia's mathematical n-body integrations]) , at least in the past, has not been able to handle multiple solar systems...has that changed?  if so, your concept is obviously better ;-)  Thanks!

Edited August 17, 2019 by AloE
clarification & syntax

[Andi K.]

On 8/17/2019 at 9:26 AM, AloE said:

That would be awesome...but my understanding is that Principia (or at least some limit in KSP numerical coordinate space {EDIT: regarding Principia's mathematical n-body integrations]) , at least in the past, has not been able to handle multiple solar systems...has that changed?  if so, your concept is obviously better ;-)  Thanks!

I actually believe you're right about Principia not working with multiple solar systems. Either way, the suggestion you are proposing seems needlessly convoluted. I don't need SLIPPIST nor TRAPPIST-1 for Principia to turn TRAPPIST-1 into the home solar system and make it work with principia

[FreeThinker]

@AndrewDraws Would it be possible if you could make any alpha version available for

 

Edited August 19, 2019 by FreeThinker

[AloE]

On 8/18/2019 at 5:51 PM, AndrewDraws said:

TRAPPIST-1 into the home solar system and make it work with principia

Your work is beautiful & the conversations in your prior threads attend to dynamics & features of interest to me about such exoplanet systems.  Consequently, I would be delighted to experience your work with well calculated n-body gravitation models based on observed transit data which resulted in the suggestion I proposed.  The less direct path I proposed regarding TRAPPIST1 emerged from my not knowing if the mathematical aspects of these systems were an aspect upon which you were interested to spend time.  The numerics blueprint & gravity model optimization of Trappist-1 for Principia may be covered by the Principia MIT release license, if so it would be a rather direct way to experience your work in a well built  n-body model without your needing to take time on such calculations.  The Principia team's integrator calculation in their initial release for TRAPPIST1 did not adequately capture the observed transit timings for 1b, if numbers are of interest to you for your other systems, especially M stars with short orbital period planets, then the brief discussion about the correction at GIThub might be of interest to you. The integrator corrections were included in Principia starting with the release Εὔδοξος

On 1/6/2019 at 10:57 PM, eggrobin said:

2019-01-06
 For the new moon (lunation number 235, partial eclipse), the new release (Εὔδοξος) is out.

• [snip....excerpt:]
• We have rerun the TRAPPIST-1 optimization, this time with a small enough integration time step allowing us to accurately model the dynamics of the system. Thanks to @AloE for spotting the incorrectly-timed transits.
  The resulting system has residuals similar to those reported by Grimm et al., with χ² = 358.79 vs. χ² = 342.29 in the paper.

See the change log for more details.  We support two sets of versions of KSP: downloads are available for 1.4.x & 1.5.1, and for 1.3.1. Make sure you download the right one (if you don't, the game will crash on load).
 

A potentially related example is that for Principia with RSS, similar short period orbits like with Io & Europa appear to experience a drift slightly from other prediction methods rather visibility by approx. a decade into the future for example with the triple shadow transits in 2032

Kind regards, Chadwick