Thargoid Sensor
Introduction
The Thargoid Sensors have been reported to look like it's made from sentient life, far beyond what we humans are capable of creating. Some people are speculating this is works of Thargoids, who haven't been seen since their disappearance. It is incredibly rare and only a few pilots have been able to see one themselves, thus being able to sell it for a huge reward.
Finding them
These Thargoid Sensors can be found in Strong Signal Sources. Timocani and 109 Virginis are the only two systems confirmed to spawn them, but Michael Brookes has stated that they are 'exceedingly rare' and that they are only available in certain regions of the galaxy, which would suggest that they are in other systems too. Since 1.3 no new UAs have been found.
Wishblend, one of the original UA finders, gives this advice:
"In 109 VIRGINIS, jump in at the big white A class star, go out (away from the star) around 100ls until the locater in the bottom left hand side of your screen says 'Deep Space'. Put supercruise speed to minimum and wait for the 'SSS' (Strong Signal Sources) to appear. Some will be ambushes, others nothing that good, so be prepared to run or fight. What you are looking for is one Type 9 Transport being escorted by a few anacondas. Sometimes there are two, sometimes four and sometimes there are other ships as well. The main tell is this: if you have a Type 9 being escorted by Anacondas, check the local chat window. If it is correct then the Type 9 and the Anacondas will be talking to each other about systems malfunctioning".
The image on the right shows the chat that you will see if you have found an instance containing a UA.
There are then two ways to get the UA from the T9, through patience or by force. The UA eats its way out of the ship holding it by degrading the cargo hatch (and other modules) over time, so in some cases it will just drop out into space in front of you. However, sometimes the T9 will jump out before this happens, so you also have option 2.
The mystery of the Unknown Artifact
There is apparently some kind of mystery to be solved around these items, and certain people close to Frontier Developments have said that there are clues in the game, but nobody has spotted them yet. They even went as far to say that they are so obvious that to give any more clues would make it too easy. Despite this, noone has solved the mystery to date.
Timeline of possible clues
10 February: Soontill Alien Artifacts are mentioned in Galnet (link). Subsequently confirmed by FD that these Artifacts are not Unknown Artifacts.
10 March: 1.2 is released. Includes "- Adding valuable salvage convoys to three permitted systems: LFT 509, Isinor, Witch's Reach"
13 March: The UA appeared for the first time as cargo on board the ship in the Wings trailer (link)
28 April: Michael Brookes comes into this forum thread and says "Have you listened to them?"
29 April: MB confirms later in the same thread that Soontill relics are not the same thing as UA's, and that UAs cannot be bought
30 April: Strange parasite that attaches to a nervous system is reported in Galnet, but seems to have been subsequently removed (link)
02 May: MB says that they are "exceedingly rare [sic] and can only be found within a certain region of space - that does include multiple systems though." and then later clarifies that they can only be found in "certain regions in the galaxy"
02 May: Senator Kahina Tijani Loren’s Imperial Courier undergoes significant refit (link)
04 May: Wishblend finds the first UA in 109 Virginis, but unfortunately doesn't get it. Henceforth officially celebrated as UA Day across the galaxy. That afternoon, a further number were spotted but RedWizzard finally managed to actually grab one in Timocani. Due to a bug a couple more were accidentally duplicated (bug reported). They were spawning a lot that day, for sure.
06 May: President Halsey's tour of the frontier announced (link)
13 May: President Halsey sets off from Sol (link)
17 May: Kahina Tijani has an advanced scanner fitted to her ship (link)
18 May: Subsequent report on Soontill Relics in Galnet (link)
26 May: Halsey's Starflight One goes missing (link)
27 May: Report on what happened to SSOne (link)
28/29 May: Conspiracy theories abound (link)
02 June: Hudson becomes president (link)
05 June: Strange cannisters called SAP 8 Core Container appears in the game with launch of 1.3. No evidence that these are linked to UAs
22 June: Mahddogg publishes his panel discussion about Powerplay, in which CMDR Kerrash mentions that "about the whole UA thing, there is something behind that, but noone's figured it out yet" (29m 30s) and that "[FD] have put some really obvious [clues] in there and we don't want to put anything else in" for fear of spoiling what is come in the future.
List of tests and theories already tried
The Sound
- The UAs do indeed make an unusual sound. Lots of players have attempted audio decryption using many different techniques and tools. So far nothing has been categorically proven.
- The UAs do sound very similar to the in-ship basic discovery scanner, along with some other strange noises that could be similar to galactic noises heard in the galactic map or in space.
- The sound changed noticeably from 1.2 to 1.3. Similar but different. Tests ongoing.
Places they have been taken
- Black hole
- [add more]
Stations where they have been sold
- [to be added]
Tests done
- They have been taken to a black hole and recorded
- They are quite delicate and behave similarly to normal cannisters in some ways
- They degrade over time in space (while ejected) and have a life of about 5 minutes max outside the ship
- Like toxic waste, they degrade ship's modules over time randomly while in the hold
- They have been allowed to 'expire' in space
- They have been shot with mining lasers
- They have been ejected into space next to various other containers:
- Toxic waste
- Sap 8 Containers (Colour of the emissions change?)
- Alien Artefacts
- Another UA
- They have been ejected inside a station
- They have been ejected into a Outpost (accidentally)
- They do not degrade the ship while docked