IMPORTANT NOTE: This logbook fetches images from my ancient home server for hotlinking. But that server offers them via HTTP, not encrypted HTTPS, so Chromium-based browsers (Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, etc.) will not load them on https://www.edsm.net due to a protocol mismatch. This still works with Firefox.

To make it work on Chromium-based browsers, load EDSM, then click that lock icon in the address bar, and click on "Site settings". Now scroll down a bit and change the value of the "Insecure content" option from "Block (default)" to "Allow". This will only apply to EDSM and allow mixing elements from encrypted and unencrypted sources. This notice will be cut and pasted so that it's always on the top of the logbook until I've found a better solution. END OF NOTE

Commanders,

Sadly, not many brown dwarf systems were surveyed over the last week, because a certain other game caught my attention. ;)

But anyway, here's what I did find:

3310-04-11

+34 systems and understandably only two uncommon things (although both are getting more common recently) were found, first an unintentionally encountered M9 star, the primary being an L1. And second, another class III gas giant orbiting the L1 in the same system:​

(Click to enlarge)

3310-04-12

Only +23 systems were surveyed and nothing was found on that day.

3310-04-14

+33 brownies and another unintentional find of a class M9 star with the primary being a slightly cooler L3 this time. I didn't go scooping fuel from this one nor the one from three days prior, so there is only a system map view:​

(Click to enlarge)

So only 91 new systems were surveyed over the last week, not much to add to the list, but here it is anyway:​

• Total brown dwarf systems surveyed: 12044
• Ammonia worlds: 8 (1 in ≈1506)
• Earth-like worlds: 0
• Water worlds (non-terraformable): 37 (1 in ≈326)
• Water worlds (terraformable): 6 (1 in ≈2007)
• Water giants: 0
• High metal content worlds (terraformable): 36 (1 in ≈335)
• Metal-rich worlds: 0
• Gas giants with ammonia-based life: 31 (1 in ≈388)
• Gas giants with water-based life: 45 (1 in ≈268)
• Class II gas giants: 34 (1 in ≈354)
• Class III gas giants: 17 (1 in ≈708)
• Class IV gas giants: 1 (1 in 12044)
• Class V gas giants: 0

• Oddities: 42

  • Class M red dwarfs orbiting class L brown dwarfs: 33 (1 in ≈365, 4 × L3 + M9, 11 × L2 + M9, 8 × L1 + M9, 7 × L0 + M9, 3 × L0 + M8)
  • Hot Jupiters: 5 (1 in ≈2409, 4 × class III, 1 × class IV)

  • Wide rings: 4 (1 in ≈3011, 1: Ice, 2240 tril. tons, iR⌾: 1468Mm, oR⌾: 2330Mm. 2: Ice, 99 tril. tons, iR⌾: 563Mm oR⌾: 893Mm. 3: Ice, 12896 tril. tons, iR⌾: 428Mm, oR⌾: 1712Mm, 4: Ice, No mass recorded, iR⌾: 553 Mm, oR⌾: 878 Mm.)

    ▸ Note: Class M9 red dwarf secondary numbers are biased towards those red dwarfs, as I would sometimes actively search for them on the galaxy map for refuelling purposes! So if you leave things to chance, you'll come across significantly fewer of them! Keep this in mind if you decide to refuel within the layer exclusively!

Commanders,

Here is your Easter week brown dwarf survey report.

Let's get right to it:

3310-04-01

On that day, only a single gas giant with water-based life was found quite far from its host body at a distance of about 35600 ls:

Click to enlarge

3310-04-02

First, a terraformable high metal content world was found:

Click to enlarge

And then, a class III gas giant in pretty close orbit around its class L host was found. This one posed a problematic situation; Is this still a hot Jupiter, or not?

Click to enlarge

So, I studied some specifications and existing observations, and it seems the defining characteristics are an orbital period of under 10 days and a mass between 0,36 - 13,6 M♃ (Jupiter masses). Most would be tidally locked and pretty hot, but there is no defined minimum temperature specified. And what has been specified only covers hot Jupiters orbiting real stars, not brown dwarfs.

This one has an orbital period of just 0,7 days, 1,86 M♃ or 590 M⊕ and a surface temperature of 590 K or about 317°C. According to observations of the Spitzer Space Telescope, the cooler versions of those planets can have "up to 700°C" of temperature, close to 1000 K. But who knows what "up to" means here.

I've decided that this planet counts.

I'm guessing that a limit of a maximum orbital period of 1 day may make sense in case of any hot Jupiter orbiting a brown dwarf. So instead of P less than 10 days I will use P less than 1 day from here on out. We'll see how well that'll work out.

3310-04-03

We start with a Sudarsky class II gas giant which is pretty far out at roughly 23800 ls. Thanks to its high albedo, the surface is still pretty visible without any image processing:

Click to enlarge

Then, some close L + T brownies:

Click to enlarge

And finally, a non-terraformable ocean world:

Click to enlarge

3310-04-04

Let's start with another set of brownies, but this times both are class L:

Click to enlarge

Then, your obligatory gas giants, one class II and one with ammonia-based life, which isn't very massive at just about 18 M⊕:

Click to enlarge

At that point, I really had to make a run for another class M secondary brown dwarf start though, which took me over 100 jumps with fuel down to the last 25% already, here's with what I arrived there:

Click to enlarge

And then I had to cover another 212206 Ls, because that's how far away that M9 star was from its L0 brown dwarf host... It's boasting an orbital period of slightly over 10000 years and a semi-major axis of 179 AU:

Click to enlarge

3310-04-05

For once in a while I decided to take the opportunity of landing on a very close moon again. Just do do something different for a while, here we go:

Click to enlarge

Seems I accidentally landed right next to an alient plant. And I had to satisfy my desire for huge crater ridges once more:

Click to enlarge

Just shortly after that I found a pretty hot high metal content world in close orbit around a class T host. Despite the very cool substar, the planet had a surface temperature of 700 K:

Click to enlarge

And then, more M's. I picked out the following L1 + M9 pair on the galaxy map though:

Click to enlarge

But just a hand full of jumps after that, there was another such pair, but this time it's an L0 with a class III gas giant and a much less common M8 star. There was nothing else in this system. The planet was brightened up by +70% to make the surface visible:

Click to enlarge

3310-04-06

Not much was found on that day, so I only got a gas giant with ammonia-based life:

Click to enlarge

Then I suddenly felt a drive to reach the bottom of the galaxy once more, following one of the larger dust protrusions going almost perpendicularly to the galactic disc. But, after a couple of neutron boosts I strangely got annoyed by the whole ordeal pretty quickly, so I aborted it and went back into the layer.

Something good did happen when I did that though, I can bring you pretty pictures of a ringed class Y brown dwarf, something that can't happen in real brown dwarf systems. ;)

Here they are:

Click to enlarge

3310-04-07

At the very end of the week, I only did a few jumps, but we got some boring gas giants with life on them again. From left to right: One with water-based and one with ammonia-based life:

Click to enlarge

That makes for a total of 677 systems with brown dwarf primaries surveyed over the last week. Here is the updated list:

• Total brown dwarf systems surveyed: 11953
• Ammonia worlds: 8 (1 in ≈1494)
• Earth-like worlds: 0
• Water worlds (non-terraformable): 37 (1 in ≈323)
• Water worlds (terraformable): 6 (1 in ≈1992)
• Water giants: 0
• High metal content worlds (terraformable): 36 (1 in ≈332)
• Metal-rich worlds: 0
• Gas giants with ammonia-based life: 31 (1 in ≈386)
• Gas giants with water-based life: 45 (1 in ≈266)
• Class II gas giants: 34 (1 in ≈352)
• Class III gas giants: 16 (1 in ≈747)
• Class IV gas giants: 1 (1 in 11953)
• Class V gas giants: 0

• Oddities: 37

  • Class M red dwarfs orbiting class L brown dwarfs: 31 (1 in ≈412, 3 × L3 + M9, 11 × L2 + M9, 7 × L1 + M9, 7 × L0 + M9, 3 × L0 + M8)
  • Hot Jupiters: 5 (1 in ≈2391, 4 × class III, 1 × class IV)

  • Wide rings: 4 (1 in ≈2988, 1: Ice, 2240 tril. tons, iR⌾: 1468Mm, oR⌾: 2330Mm. 2: Ice, 99 tril. tons, iR⌾: 563Mm oR⌾: 893Mm. 3: Ice, 12896 tril. tons, iR⌾: 428Mm, oR⌾: 1712Mm, 4: Ice, No mass recorded, iR⌾: 553 Mm, oR⌾: 878 Mm.)

    ▸ Note: Class M9 red dwarf secondary numbers are biased towards those red dwarfs, as I would sometimes actively search for them on the galaxy map for refuelling purposes! So if you leave things to chance, you'll come across significantly fewer of them! Keep this in mind if you decide to refuel within the layer exclusively!

Commanders,

Here is your weekly brown dwarf survey report for holy week!

There were four days of activity and a total of 299 systems were surveyed.​

3010-03-27

On the first day, I visited 77 systems, finding... absolutely nothing. Not even a single close orbiter or interesting gas giant. What a drag!​ But that's what it means to sift through brownies.

3010-03-29

Another 86 systems, and I came across two water worlds, non-terraformable ones again. One of them came with rings, though!​ Okay, not the most fashionable rings, but I'll take what I can get:

(Click to enlarge)

Both are pretty high pressure with the left one of them being rather huge and massive too. It comes with a mass of 7,47 M⊕ at a radius of 13068 km. It's surface pressure is quite extreme at 1989 atm. So that's how it can maintain liquid water on its surface when it's 44 Ls from its host. It's pretty warm down there at a surface temperature average of 314 K or 40°C. Would make for a nice summer resort if it wouldn't instantly squish you into purée.

The ringed one is way smaller with a radius of 8833 km and a mass of 1,27 M⊕. It's rather chilly with a surface temperature average of 274 K.

There's more though, as another class III gas giant has also been located:

Photo modified; Planetary brightness increased by +50% (Click to enlarge)

There were also quite a few close brownie binaries, but more on that later. I don't find them to be exciting enough to report on all of them any longer.

3010-03-30

Another day of nothing, but I only made 15 jumps on that day, so it's fine.

3010-03-31

Yesterday I was quite active, fully FSS'ing another 121 systems. It's been a while since I got startled by dropping out of hyperspace into a set of multiple close stars while in VR, but yesterday it happened once again. Made my heart jump out of my chest when I jumped in right between the tertiary class L and the secondary class T, what a rush!

And there was also a pretty close class T at about 3,74 Ls from the main class L in a system just before the trinary one:

(Click to enlarge)

What next? Your obligatory gas giant with water-based life of course. It just had to happen. This one is pretty far out at over 15800 Ls though, so I thought I'd show you just how dark it is out there by positioning myself in such a manner that the milky way would be behind the planet and the system's substar at my back, nothing was artificially brightened here:

(Click to enlarge)

It's pretty massive at ~992 M⊕ as well!

Another uncommon thing around brown dwarfs are very closely orbiting high metal content worlds. And here's one of them orbiting a class T brown dwarf secondary, with the main class L being pretty close, too:

Photos modified; planetary brightness increased by +30% (Click to enlarge)

This one comes with a radius just shy of 8000 km and a mass of 2,63 M⊕. It orbits its host in but a tenth of a day!

And last but definitely not least, we also got another wide, icy ring system. It's around a class I gas giant, and even comes with a set of two sheperd moons:

(Click to enlarge)

It's definitely not the widest I've seen in brown dwarf systems, but it's inner diameter sits at 553 Mm, and the outer one at 878 Mm. That's only the fourth wide ring system in over 11000 systems!

Here's the updated list:

• Total brown dwarf systems surveyed: 11276
• Ammonia worlds: 8 (1 in ≈1410)
• Earth-like worlds: 0
• Water worlds (non-terraformable): 36 (1 in ≈313)
• Water worlds (terraformable): 6 (1 in ≈1879)
• Water giants: 0
• High metal content worlds (terraformable): 35 (1 in ≈322)
• Metal-rich worlds: 0
• Gas giants with ammonia-based life: 28 (1 in ≈403)
• Gas giants with water-based life: 43 (1 in ≈262)
• Class II gas giants: 32 (1 in ≈352)
• Class III gas giants: 14 (1 in ≈805)
• Class IV gas giants: 1 (1 in 11276)
• Class V gas giants: 0

• Oddities: 34

  • Class M red dwarfs orbiting class L brown dwarfs: 28 (1 in ≈434, 3 × L3 + M9, 11 × L2 + M9, 6 × L1 + M9, 6 × L0 + M9, 2 × L0 + M8)
  • Hot Jupiters: 4 (1 in ≈2819, 3 × class III, 1 × class IV)

  • Wide rings: 4 (1 in ≈2819, 1: Ice, 2240 tril. tons, iR⌾: 1468Mm, oR⌾: 2330Mm. 2: Ice, 99 tril. tons, iR⌾: 563Mm oR⌾: 893Mm. 3: Ice, 12896 tril. tons, iR⌾: 428Mm, oR⌾: 1712Mm, 4: Ice, No mass recorded, iR⌾: 553 Mm, oR⌾: 878 Mm.)

    ▸ Note: Class M9 red dwarf secondary numbers are biased towards those red dwarfs, as I would sometimes actively search for them on the galaxy map for refuelling purposes! So if you leave things to chance, you'll come across significantly fewer of them! Keep this in mind if you decide to refuel within the layer exclusively!

Commanders,

Here is your brown dwarf survey report!

I have decided to switch to a weekly format and stop all the editing of old posts and lists. It was just too much of a chaos, so the new format should be much cleaner.

Having taken Mon-Wed off, the results are from 3310-10-22 to 3310-10-24:

An additional +345 systems have been surveyed. I'm still on the slow side because I'm FSSing all systems. So I still haven't fallen back to the jump-honk-jump-honk cycle. In any case, what did I find?

Aside from some close binaries (both substars and planets), almost the usual in terms of gas giants: Two class II and two with water-based life, but also another less common class III! On top of that, I came across two water worlds in very quick succession, just a handful of jumps apart from each other. Neither was terraformable however, with one being farther out while having a high surface pressure of over 400 atm and the other being pretty tiny with a radius of ~1400 km.

Additionally to that, two more M9 secondaries have been located, with the primary being an L0 dwarf in both cases. The first one was just by chance, whereas I had searched for the second, farther one on the galaxy map for refuelling.

That also made me rethink my assessment of the rarity of class M red dwarf secondaries within the brown dwarf layer. Currently, it's quite biased towards those red dwarfs, because I'll have searched for them on the map in most cases out of the need for fuel. You would never come across this many if you'd leave it to chance! I decided to make a note in the list that clarifies this.

Now as for the photos:

3010-03-21:

Almost entirely uninteresting, but I still noted it down: A system with nothing but six ringed gas giants in it. Here they are:

(Click to enlarge)

And the least common object of the last week, a Sudarsky class III gas giant, sadly doesn't quite qualify as a "hot" Jupiter, it's more like a lukewarm one at a surface temperature of 403 K:

(Click to enlarge)

3010-03-22:

Another object of little interest, but I still took a photo; A close-orbiting high metal content world, though I forgot to check whether it's landable. 18 Ls away there was another class L substar, which is not pictured:

(Click to enlarge)

Also, one of the two gas giants with water-based life was found on this day:

Note: The photograph has been altered, brightness was raised by +70% (Click to enlarge)

3010-03-23:

Nothing noteworthy was found on this day with only 12 systems surveyed.

3010-03-24:

On Sunday, I took my time and visited the bulk of systems last week, with +236 brownie ones visited and FSS'd on this day alone. Again, the least interesting things come first, so here's where I found that pretty close-orbiting L + T + T triplet:

(Click to enlarge)

Next would be one of two Sudarsky class II gas giants and the second gas giant with water-based life:

(Click to enlarge)

On to the water worlds! As said, neither was terraformable though. Too bad. First one was a high-pressure world a bit farther out:

(Click to enlarge)

The second one was closer to its host substar and featured a low atmospheric surface pressure. It was also pretty tiny with a radius of about 1400 km:

(Click to enlarge)

And finally, the M9 secondaries, of which I only took system map shots this time:

(Click to enlarge)

When I encountered the first one, there was still enough fuel left in the tank to reach the M9 I had located by manually sifting through systems on the galaxy map. So I decided to leave it alone and refuel from the second, farther one, no issues there with the eco jumps I'm doing.

Here's the updated list, with "oddities" totals corrected:

• Total brown dwarf systems surveyed: 10977
• Ammonia worlds: 8 (1 in ≈1372)
• Earth-like worlds: 0
• Water worlds (non-terraformable): 34 (1 in ≈323)
• Water worlds (terraformable): 6 (1 in ≈1830)
• Water giants: 0
• High metal content worlds (terraformable): 35 (1 in ≈314)
• Metal-rich worlds: 0
• Gas giants with ammonia-based life: 28 (1 in ≈392)
• Gas giants with water-based life: 42 (1 in ≈261)
• Class II gas giants: 32 (1 in ≈343)
• Class III gas giants: 13 (1 in ≈844)
• Class IV gas giants: 1 (1 in 10977)
• Class V gas giants: 0

• Oddities: 33

  • Class M red dwarfs orbiting class L brown dwarfs: 26 (1 in ≈422, 3 × L3 + M9, 11 × L2 + M9, 6 × L1 + M9, 6 × L0 + M9, 2 × L0 + M8)
  • Hot Jupiters: 4 (1 in ≈2744, 3 × class III, 1 × class IV)

  • Wide rings: 3 (1 in ≈3659, 1: Ice, 2240 tril. tons, iR⌾: 1468Mm, oR⌾: 2330Mm. 2: Ice, 99 tril. tons, iR⌾: 563Mm oR⌾: 893Mm. 3: Ice, 12896 tril. tons, iR⌾: 428Mm, oR⌾: 1712Mm.)

    ▸ Note: Class M9 red dwarf secondary numbers are biased towards those red dwarfs, as I would sometimes actively search for them on the galaxy map for refuelling purposes! So if you leave things to chance, you'll come across significantly fewer of them! Keep this in mind if you decide to refuel within the layer exclusively!

Commanders,

Another +45 systems have been added to the list, with one water world and one mildly interesting system with six brown dwarfs have been found. That was when my controls started failing... I guess I have to remap them from scratch, hah.

Anyway, here's the six-star system, click to enlarge the images:

(Click to enlarge)

And here's the water world, sadly it's not terraformable:

(Click to enlarge)

Here's the updated list:

• Total brown dwarf systems surveyed: 10632
• Ammonia worlds: 8
• Earth-like worlds: 0
• Water worlds (non-terraformable): 32
• Water worlds (terraformable): 6
• Water giants: 0
• High metal content worlds (terraformable): 35
• Metal-rich worlds: 0
• Gas giants with ammonia-based life: 28
• Gas giants with water-based life: 40
• Class II gas giants: 30
• Class III gas giants: 12
• Class IV gas giants: 1
• Class V gas giants: 0
• Oddities: 22
  • Class M red dwarfs orbiting class L brown dwarfs: 24 (3 × L3 + M9, 11 × L2 + M9, 6 × L1 + M9, 4 × L0 + M9, 2 × L0 + M8)
  • Hot Jupiters: 4 (3 × class III, 1 × class IV)
  • Wide rings: 3 (1: Ice, 2240 tril. tons, iR⌾: 1468Mm, oR⌾: 2330Mm. 2: Ice, 99 tril. tons, iR⌾: 563Mm oR⌾: 893Mm. 3: Ice, 12896 tril. tons, iR⌾: 428Mm, oR⌾: 1712Mm.)

Edit 3310-03-15: After running for a class M9 secondary star for over 60 jumps (+61 systems, actually) I finally managed to refuel within the brown dwarf belt once more, and I was pretty close to running out.

Here's the fuel gauge at 58 jumps away:

(click to enlarge)

The M9 secondary to an L2 brown dwarf primary was over 16 lighthours out there actually:

(Click to enlarge)

And here's the fuel gauge just before refueling:

(Click to enlarge)

Update 3310-03-16: +72 systems have been surveyed and two bodies of interest have been found: One more gas giant with ammonia-based life, and a terraformable high metal content world with about half of Earth's mass and landable with a thin 0.1 atm atmosphere.

Here's the gas giant:

And the terraformable high metal content world, with a pair of class L and T brown dwarfs rising on the horizon:

The latter also had a closely orbiting moon, but the alignment was bad for good photos, so I skipped that part.

Update 3310-03-17: Only +35 systems were surveyed that day, but quite a few interesting gas giants have been found and mapped. There was one class II, two with ammonia-based life and one with water-based life.

Here are the ammonia-based ones:

(Click to enlarge)

And the one with water-based life:

No pictures of the class II gas giant, as the other three are probably boring enough already. ;)

Commanders,

My apologies, no photographs today.

After I unfortunately had to take a break due to certain issues for a few years, I finally managed to resume the brown dwarf survey. I remember I was "at about 9500 systems surveyed", so I shall count from that number, even if it's not perfectly accurate.

+146 systems have been surveyed over the last few days, making me sit at an assumed 9646 systems with a main body of spectral class L, and I even got a little lucky: One gas giant with ammonia-based life, one class II and even one rather uncommon class III gas giants were found!

Now I won't be able to fly as much as I used to, but I'm looking forward to it nonetheless. Currently, I am still in the process of re-learning how to control my shieldless vessel properly, but I'll get there.

With that, the current list of uncommon, interesting bodies across those 9646 systems looks like this:

• Total brown dwarf systems surveyed: 10208
• Ammonia worlds: 8
• Earth-like worlds: 0
• Water worlds (non-terraformable): 31
• Water worlds (terraformable): 6
• Water giants: 0
• High metal content worlds (terraformable): 34
• Metal-rich worlds: 0
• Gas giants with ammonia-based life: 24
• Gas giants with water-based life: 39
• Class II gas giants: 29
• Class III gas giants: 11
• Class IV gas giants: 1
• Class V gas giants: 0
• Oddities: 22
  • Class M red dwarfs orbiting class L brown dwarfs: 23 (3 × L3 + M9, 9 × L2 + M9, 6 × L1 + M9, 4 × L0 + M9, 2 × L0 + M8)
  • Hot Jupiters: 3 (2 × class III, 1 × class IV)
  • Wide rings: 3 (1: Ice, 2240 tril. tons, iR⌾: 1468Mm, oR⌾: 2330Mm. 2: Ice, 99 tril. tons, iR⌾: 563Mm oR⌾: 893Mm. 3: Ice, 12896 tril. tons, iR⌾: 428Mm, oR⌾: 1712Mm.)

Edit 3310-02-29: +127 systems were surveyed over the last two days for a total of 9773.

Sadly, I had to break my rule of never refuelling outside of the (brown dwarf) layer yesterday though, as fuel was critically low. So a class O main body it was, I just couldn't locate a single brown dwarf system with an additional class M star in it in my vicinity. Too bad, but can't be helped. Still better than stranding.

Not much was found either, only a single gas giant with ammonia-based life to account for.

Edit 3310-03-01: Not much to report regarding yesterday, as only another 11 systems were surveyed.

Edit 3310-03-04: Over the past three days, another 313 systems have been surveyed for a total of 10097, so it's finally over 10k! And while there were no earth-likes, no ammonia and no water worlds, I surprisingly found a whole four gas giants with water-based life! So far the rate was about one every 285 systems, so four in 313 systems is definitely unusual.

Here are two of them, now in the form of clickable thumbnails to make them load faster from my Stoneage server:

(click to enlarge)

On top of that, I finally found another class M9 star for re-fueling while staying within brown dwarf systems:

(click to enlarge)

Furthermore, to resharpen my skills as I need to re-learn everything about properly controlling my vessel - the Dinnerbell - I have successfully attempted my first planetary landings in over 3 years. At first, I picked a very tiny body of just 250 km diameter and 0,02 g, followed by a larger high metal content world with a thin atmosphere and large impact craters. That one had a gravity of 0,52 g. Here's the 250 km potato:

(click to enlarge)

And here's the high metal content world:

(click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

Surely this is just run-of-the-mill stuff for pretty much all of you, but I better take small steps, as I don't want to end 5 years in the black as a black spot on some nameless rock in the middle of nowhere... ;)

Edit 3310-03-06: +59 systems have been surveyed for a total of 10156, with only one interesting new finding: A gas giant with ammonia-based life.

Edit 3310-03-06: Another +45 systems done, with yet another gas giant with water-based life having been found.

Edit 3310-03-08: Not much was done yesterday, so only +7 new systems with no findings.

Commanders,

My last log entry (and all of its edits) can be summed up like this: A class IV gas giant has been found, and wide rings have been added to the oddity category of my results.

There hasn't been anything overly special going on today, but the yield's been still ok so far, and I thought it was time for a new entry by now.

Today's findings? So far, a class II gas giant and two class M red dwarf stars, where one was in co-orbit with an L3 brown dwarf (first of its kind so far) and one was in co-orbit with a T0, with that system being in co-orbit with the main L1.

That last system also featured a non-terraformable water world in relatively close proximity to the class M9 star.

Some images, first the L3+M9 pair:

And the L1+M9/T0, the M9 star being observed from its closest satellite, a small high metal content world:

And with that, here are the current statistics at slightly less than 8000 systems visited:

• Ammonia worlds: 8
• Earth-like worlds: 0
• Water worlds (non-terraformable): 31
• Water worlds (terraformable): 6
• Water giants: 0
• High metal content worlds (terraformable): 33
• Metal-rich worlds: 0
• Gas giants with ammonia-based life: 21
• Gas giants with water-based life: 34
• Class II gas giants: 28
• Class III gas giants: 10
• Class IV gas giants: 1
• Class V gas giants: 0
• Oddities: 22
  • Class M red dwarfs orbiting class L brown dwarfs: 22 (3 × L3 + M9, 9 × L2 + M9, 5 × L1 + M9, 4 × L0 + M9, 2 × L0 + M8)
  • Hot Jupiters: 3 (2 × class III, 1 × class IV)
  • Wide rings: 3 (1: Ice, 2240 tril. tons, iR⌾: 1468Mm, oR⌾: 2330Mm. 2: Ice, 99 tril. tons, iR⌾: 563Mm oR⌾: 893Mm. 3: Ice, 12896 tril. tons, iR⌾: 428Mm, oR⌾: 1712Mm.)

Edit 3306-05-01: Two more down for the count: One gas giant with water-based life and another with ammonia-based life.

Edit 3306-05-13: Today, another rarity was found! A Sudarsky class III gas giant, which I hadn't seen for thousands of jumps! Nice! In the beginning (like the first 1000, maybe 2000 class L systems) I had already found 3 of them, but no more for the latter 4000-5000 jumps. Now, here's the fourth! 4 in about 6000 systems make for a rate of one planet every 1500 systems...

Edit 3306-05-13: A highly uncommon one again! Not just a terraformable high metal content world and a gas giant with water-based life, but also a terraformable water world! It is only the third of its kind in the last 6000 class L systems.

Edit 3306-05-22: Even more red dwarfs! Today I found an L0+M8 pair about 4000Ls apart plus some really close L0+M9 friends:

Edit 3306-05-23: Lots of jumps today, and some findings too: One very uncommon class III gas giant, one gas giant with ammonia-based life and one with water-based life, plus one terraformable high metal content world.

Edit 3306-05-24: Another non-terraformable water world has been found.

Edit 3306-05-30: Heh... Another two of those!

Edit 3306-06-01: Another gas giant with water-based life.

Edit 3306-06-06: And another non-terraformable water world. This one featured a high-pressure atmosphere at slightly over 2200 atm, but was not terraformable, as it was just a bit too far from its brown dwarf. At its distance, its median surface temperature sat at 333K, all because of the high pressure. Too bad, as it was really large at a radius of slightly over 12.000km! Or maybe it was actually too large / high-g anyway? I didn't check the g forces...

Edit 3306-06-07: Huh, another class M red dwarf star, once more in a system with an L2 primary. The star itself was in co-orbit with an L6, and the pair sits in a wide co-orbit with the L2 (about 150kLs apart). With that, I have simplified the class M record to include only the red dwarf stars and the primary substars. This means certain information is now lost, I'll keep only the parts I think are significant enough: The spectral classes of the primary substar and of the class M star.

Edit 3306-07-11: Been pretty inactive as of late, but today: One more terraformable high metal content world and one gas giant with ammonia-based life have been discovered.

Edit 3306-07-12: Another two (!) terraformable water worlds have been found, plus one non-terraformable one. One of the systems with a terraformable water world also featured two terraformable high-metal content worlds. Not a bad catch.

Edit 3306-07-12: Whoa, there we go; Another very uncommon Sudarsky class III gas giant and one with water-based life!

Edit 3306-07-26: Here we go, another ammonia world, two gas giants with water-based life, two class II gas giants and an unbelievable FOUR water worlds! The only bad part about this run was that there were zero terraformables.

Edit 3306-08-19: Another quite uncommon planet was found, a class III gas giant. Additionally to that, there was a gas giant with water-based life, and thankfully, a class M9 secondary star with an L2 being the primary. I was down to my last fifth of fuel when I found it... I still think L2's might be the sweet spot when it comes to brown dwarfs.

Edit 3306-09-20: One more gas giant with water-based life and one terraformable high metal content world has been found.

Edit 3306-09-27: And there's another gas giant with water-based life...

Edit 3306-10-03: With fuel below ⅓, this time I started to look for a brown dwarf system with a class M "fuel star" inside on the map, instead of relying on pure luck as I have for the past 4000-or-so systems. I just got a bad feeling about it this time... I got super lucky and almost immediately found a nearby class L3 dwarf with an M9 secondary.

This is only the 2nd L3 that I managed to find with an actual star inside. As far as I know, given the maximum L3 mass and the minimum M9 mass observed so far, an L4+M9 combo would probably be impossible?

Addendum: Haven't found another star since then (3306-10-11), so looking for one on the map was probably a really good idea! I'm still hell-bent on not refuelling at any star outside of brown dwarf systems!

Edit 3306-10-11: Wohoo, another terraformable water world!

Edit 3306-10-15: And a non-terraformable one. Plus the first terraformable high metal content world with no atmosphere that I managed to find in a class L system. There was also another class II gas giant. Not bad.

Edit 3306-10-17: Running out of fuel again, I went looking for a source on the map instead of relying on luck, just like last time. After a few minutes of searching, I found an L1+M9 pair to refuel my ship.

On top of that, there was a class I gas giant with a wide ice ring ranging from 428.099km to 1.712.395km, and it was visible, too! Other than that, there was another gas giant with water-based life. They're almost common by now?

Edit 3306-10-18: Seems they are, indeed. Found another... THREE! Plus a non-terraformable water world.

Edit 3306-10-25: Uh, nice! Found a class III gas giant today, pretty close to its brown dwarf at just slightly over 70 Ls. That's a really uncommon find!

Edit 3306-10-26: Today was rather uneventful, but at least there was a terraformable high-metal content world!

Edit 3306-11-01: Nothing much for today, just another gas giant with water-based life.

3306-11-29: Another class II gas giant, another one with ammonia-based life and a combination of an L3 brown dwarf primary with an M9 red dwarf star secondary, which is rather uncommon.

3306-12-06: Just a class II gas giant today. Oh well.

3307-02-10: Here we go, another terraformable high metal content world.

3307-02-11: Another rather uneventful day. Nothing noteworthy other than a class II gas giant. And that's barely noteworthy to begin with...

3307-02-15: Nothing but a gas giant with water-based life today. Mah, not too bad.

3307-02-26: Not too bad, two more class M9 secondary red dwarf stars have been found, although one was picked from the map, so planned for. On top of that, I've stumbled over a gas giant with water-based life, aaand another hot Jupiter, a highly uncommon class III this time, here it is:

3307-02-28: And another uncommon one, a Sudarsky class III gas giant.

3307-04-24: Ooh, and another one. Not a "hot Jupiter" this time though, even if it was relatively close to its brown dwarf at roughly 10ls. As usual, the statistics at the top of this log entry have been updated accordingly.

3307-04-25: Not a bad day, one gas giant with ammonia-based life and - after a looong time - another actual Ammonia world has been discovered!

Commanders,

I had almost thought it impossible, but today, I finally found proof that class IV gas giants do indeed exist in class L brown dwarf systems.

Here we go:

At this point I thought, it'd surely be another class III gas giant. And that wouldn't have been bad at all, as those are pretty uncommon as well.

It was actually the tool [Elite Observatory] that had notified me about a closely orbiting planet and had made me pay attention.

After seeing the orbit line (before the planet itself) I was quite sure that it had to be something interesting, given the proximity.

Let's get closer:

An oblate hot Jupiter... Although "hot" is probably not comparable to gas giants on close orbits around really hot stars, but still.

It's orbiting a class L3 brown dwarf with an L2 being the primary:

Most good things happen to me in L2 systems...

At that point I hadn't even noticed what I'd just found though. I only realized it when I took a look at the system map:

Finally... One thing to scratch off my wanted list!

This feels especially good since the first class IV I had reported had to be revoked. I'd made a stupid mistake, accidentally reporting a class III as a class IV. But now, this is the real deal!

With this, let me re-publish my statistics so far, I should be at around 5000 brown dwarf systems surveyed by now, and this is what I've found:

• Ammonia worlds: 6
• Earth-like worlds: 0
• Water worlds (non-terraformable): 19
• Water worlds (terraformable): 2
• Water giants: 0
• High metal content worlds (terraformable): 23
• Metal-rich worlds: 0
• Gas giants with ammonia-based life: 16
• Gas giants with water-based life: 16
• Class II gas giants: 22
• Class III gas giants: 3
• Class IV gas giants: 1
• Class V gas giants: 0
• Oddities: 15
  • Class M red dwarfs orbiting class L brown dwarfs: 11 (5 × L2 + M9, 2 × L1 + M9, 2 × L0 + M9, 1 × L0/T6 + M8, 1 × L0/L4 + M9)
  • Hot Jupiters: 2 (1 × class III, 1 × class IV)
  • Wide rings: 2 (1: Ice, 2240 bil. tons, iR⌾: 1468Mm, oR⌾: 2330Mm. 2: Ice, 99 bil. tons, iR⌾: 563Mm oR⌾: 893Mm)

Now, all that's missing on the gas giant front would be a class V and a water giant. And - heh - a glowing green gas giant.

Edit 3306-03-17: Another gas giant with water-based life to add to the statistics.

Edit 3306-03-29: Today's catch: A non-terraformable water world, a terraformable high metal content world and another class II gas giant. Not too good, not too bad.

Edit 3306-04-04: Nice one, another class M star, this time a M9 in co-orbit with a L1 dwarf. Plus, another gas giant with water-based life and a terraformable high metal content world!

Edit 3306-04-05: Just a side-note: Since the beginning of this survey and up to yesterday (3306-04-04), 5311 brown dwarf systems have been surveyed by me. With the exception of just a very few class T and Y dwarfs (probably less than 10), it's all been systems with a class L primary.

Edit 3306-04-17: One gas giant with ammonia-based life has been found today.

Edit 3306-04-23: After encountering my second class I gas giant with a wide ring, I've decided to add those to the oddity category. Also, a class II gas giant was found today.

Here's a photograph of said wide ring (98.613 million tons of ice with an iR⌾ of 562.689km and an oR⌾ of 893.213km):

Commanders,

It seems my previous class M red dwarf star encounter in the brown dwarf layer was the most awesome so far, but only for a brief time. Today, I was greeted by a star orbiting the main substellar dwarf even more closely:

But then again, that's not the entire truth, as it was actually orbiting a tight binary of that class L dwarf with another class T one, see this slightly different angle:

That trinary system is in co-orbit with another pair of class L brown dwarfs as well, see the system map:

That was also the hottest and brightest class M star I've managed to find in the (brown dwarf) layer so far, as this was no M9, but an M8!

Stats update:

• Ammonia worlds: 6
• Earth-like worlds: 0
• Water worlds (non-terraformable): 18
• Water worlds (terraformable): 2
• Water giants: 0
• High metal content worlds (terraformable): 20
• Metal-rich worlds: 0
• Gas giants with ammonia-based life: 15
• Gas giants with water-based life: 14
• Class II gas giants: 20
• Class III gas giants: 3
• Class IV gas giants: 0
• Class V gas giants: 0
• Oddities: 9
  • Class M red dwarfs orbiting class L brown dwarf(s): 9 (5 × L2 + M9, 1 × L1 + M9, 2 × L0 + M9, 1 × L0/T6 + M8)

Nothing else to report for now though.

Fly safe!

Edit 3306-01-26: Another good day today! Found a non-terraformable water world, a terraformable high metal content world, a gas giant with water-based life plus an ammonia world! Stats have been updated.

Edit 3306-02-23: Another non-terraformable water world has been found.

Edit 3306-03-08: I can add another gas giant with water-based life and one with ammonia-based life to the list today! Also, another class M9 red dwarf star secondary was found in a system with an L2 primary dwarf. Nice, because I was already in my last third in terms of fuel. Edit: Also: One additional terraformable high metal content world.

Edit 3306-03-12: What a run that was today! 1 non-terraformable water world, 1 gas giant with ammonia-based life as well as 1 with water-based life, a class II gass giant and an unbelievable 5 terraformable high metal content worlds. Today's messing up my statistics. ;)

Edit 3306-03-13: And here we got ourselves another terraformable high metal content world. Nothing else to report though.

Edit 3306-03-13: Phew, that was another good day. Two gas giants with water-based life, one class II gas giant, two terraformable high metal content worlds and one non-terraformable water world. Nice catches!

Commanders,

I'm guessing I'm roughly at 3500 class L stars surveyed by now, and today I had kind of a heartwarming experience. This may seem entirely mundane to people not familiar with the brown dwarf layer, but I found the experience to be... elating!

This is what I saw right after hyperspace exit:

(It's close!)

This is the closest pair of class L / M objects I've seen in the layer so far. The red dwarf star is both less massive and smaller than the failed substellar object that is the systems' primary body. Let's look at the brown dwarf from the star's immediate vicinity:

As you can see, the brown dwarf can clearly be seen from the star. Makes me think.. there might be even closer pairs than this...

The orrery was quite interesting as well:

And here's the system map view:

Maybe I'm too easily impressed by now, but I found this to have been a really nice experience today. :)

Now, as for the stats, adding another non-terraformable water world that I found today as well:

• Ammonia worlds: 5
• Earth-like worlds: 0
• Water worlds (non-terraformable): 14
• Water worlds (terraformable): 2
• Water giants: 0
• High metal content worlds (terraformable): 10
• Metal-rich worlds: 0
• Gas giants with ammonia-based life: 13
• Gas giants with water-based life: 9
• Class II gas giants: 18
• Class III gas giants: 3
• Class IV gas giants: 0
• Class V gas giants: 0
• Oddities: 7
  • Class M red dwarfs orbiting class L brown dwarf(s): 7 (4 × L2 + M9, 1 × L1 + M9, 2 × L0 + M9)

Edit 3306-01-07: And today... just another class II gas giant.

Edit 3306-01-08: Another gas giant has been found. This time it's one with ammonia-based life again.

Edit 3306-01-12: Got a few nice catches today; Two class II gas giants, one gas giant with ammonia-based life, one terraformable high metal content world and one more class M9 red dwarf star in co-orbit with the L2 main body. I didn't take any photos, but here's the system with the M9 star:

Edit 3306-01-12: I had the suspicion for a while now, but today I checked my data, and now I am sure: I have mis-reported the finding of a Sudarsky class IV gas giant in a class L system. There was no such thing. Hence, it will be removed from the statistics.

Edit 3306-01-16: Two days of having found absolutely nothing... Just icycles, high metal content pebbles and some boring Jovian planets. And today? Today was gas giant day. Caught one of the rare class III gas giants plus one with ammonia-based life as well as one with water-based life!