An Educated Approximation of How Many Planets Exist

Dart · Dec 13, 2013

...Galaxies are not solar systems.

Had to say that. It bugged the crap out of me to read it.

Shackram · Dec 13, 2013

Dev post from july: http://community.playstarbound.com/...-on-the-size-of-starbound.27178/#post-1063769

I currently have *no idea* how many planets are possible, so I'm going to do a quick calculation based on the information currently in the game. Subject to change of course.
The celestial hierarchy works as follows:
You have sectors. Sectors take a 64-bit seed. Currently, we have 3 sectors defined, for release we're planning on 10.
Each sector contains systems (currently only star systems). There is a 1 in 100 chance that any given XY coordinate contains a system, and the coordinates range from -100 million to 100 million. Meaning there are on average 200 million ^ 2 / 100 systems per sector, or 400 trillion. (Z coordinate also ranges from -100 million to 100 million and is calculated as a checksum of the first two numbers iirc).
Each system can contain up to 12 planets, the exact probability depends on the type of the system, but average number of planets in a system is currently (2.0 * 0.2 * 12 + 3.0 * 0.6 * 11 + 1.0 * 0.4 * 10 + 1.0 * 0.4 * 10) / 7.0 ~= 4.657
Each planet could either be a terrestrial planet or a gas giant. And may have up to 12 moons (I believe?). Each moon is a terrestrial body and landable, gas giants are not.
The average number of moons for a planet is ( 2.0 * 0.1 * 12 + 1.0 * 0.2 * 12) / 3 = 1.6 moons / planet. And the probability that the planet itself can be landed on is 2/3.
This gives 3 * 400 trillion * (4.657 * 1.6 + 4.657 * 2 / 3) = 12.667 quadrillion planets in the game currently. 422.22 quadrillion planets expected for release. And if you're into modding the game and unlocking arbitrary sectors you can access up to 77.88 decillion different worlds.
Click to expand...

TL;DR roughly 422 quadrillion planets will be available by release.

Litagano Motscoud · Dec 13, 2013

tl;dr a lot

hoschelhoff · Dec 13, 2013

You have the word "Galaxy" mistaken for the word(s) "Solar system".

Abadayos · Dec 13, 2013

My god...it's full of stars!

An interesting bit of math and it makes me happy that I will not get overly bored when doing my 'click random 4 times and travel to that system' method of exploration.

Well done

OobleckTheGreen · Dec 13, 2013

42

Guswut · Dec 13, 2013

Clisen said: ↑

I just clicked on about 8 random threads, and I see your smug ass blue face on all of them. This is unacceptable.
Click to expand...

It is your lucky day, as my face is not blue, but green. Mint-green, to be specific. Glad to have been of assistance!

Log in or Sign up

An Educated Approximation of How Many Planets Exist

Dart Aquatic Astronaut

Shackram Subatomic Cosmonaut

Litagano Motscoud Master Astronaut

hoschelhoff Starship Captain

Abadayos Space Spelunker

OobleckTheGreen Space Kumquat

Guswut Ketchup Robot

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Useful Searches

An Educated Approximation of How Many Planets Exist

Dart Aquatic Astronaut

Shackram Subatomic Cosmonaut

Litagano Motscoud Master Astronaut

hoschelhoff Starship Captain

Abadayos Space Spelunker

OobleckTheGreen Space Kumquat

Guswut Ketchup Robot

Share This Page