Size in bits:
5 |
9 |
11 |
13 |
18 (pseudo) |
20 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
Larger
Cost in gliders:
2 |
3 |
6 |
unknown
Not quite spaceships
| Glider; Feather- weight space- ship; FWSS [2] |
The Glider has a period of 4 and a diagonal velocity of c/4. It moves one cell up and flips diagonally every two generations, effectively moving one cell up and left every 4 generations. It is the simplest and most common spaceship in Life, and forms the basis for all syntheses.
| Light-weight spaceship; LWSS; Small fish [3] |
The LWSS has a period of 4 and an orthogonal velocity of c/2. It moves one cell up and flips from side to side every two generations, effectively moving two cells up every 4 generations. It is one of the few common spaceship in Life, and is used in some syntheses.
| Middle- weight spaceship; MWSS; Medium fish [3] |
The MWSS has a period of 4 and an orthogonal velocity of c/2. It moves one cell up and flips from side to side every two generations, effectively moving two cells up every 4 generations. It is one of the few common spaceship in Life, and is used in some syntheses.
| Heavy- weight spaceship; HWSS; Big fish [3] |
The HWSS has a period of 4 and an orthogonal velocity of c/2. It moves one cell up and flips from side to side every two generations, effectively moving two cells up every 4 generations. It is one of the few common spaceship in Life, and is used in some syntheses.
| LWSS on LWSS [7] |
This has a period of 4 and an orthogonal velocity of c/2. It moves two cells up every 4 generations.
| LWSS on MWSS #1 [7] | MWSS on MWSS #1 [7] | LWSS on HWSS #1 [7] | LWSS on HWSS #2 [7] | MWSS on MWSS #2 [7] | Loafer [8] |
In February 2013, Josh Ball discovered the Loafer, the only known spaceship that moves orthogonally at a velocity of c/7. It moves up one cell every 7 generations. It is remarkable due to its small size, the fact that it is easily synthesized from gliders, and that despite its small population and size, nobody had ever found it before.
The rest of these have a period of 4 and an orthogonal velocity of c/2. They move two cells up every 4 generations.
| LWSS on HWSS #3 [6] | LWSS on HWSS #4 [6] | LWSS on HWSS #5 [7] | LWSS on HWSS #6 [7] | MWSS on HWSS #1 [7] | MWSS on HWSS #2 [7] | MWSS on HWSS #3 [7] | HWSS on HWSS #1 [7] | HWSS on HWSS #2 [7] |
All of these have a period of 4 and an orthogonal velocity of c/2. They move two cells up every 4 generations.
| LWSS on MWSS #2 [6] | LWSS on MWSS #3 [7] |
All of these have a period of 4 and an orthogonal velocity of c/2. They move two cells up every 4 generations.
| MWSS on MWSS #3 [7] | MWSS on HWSS #4 [7] | MWSS on HWSS #5 [7] | MWSS on HWSS #6 [7] | MWSS on HWSS #7 [7] | MWSS on HWSS #8 [7] | Sidecar on HWSS [8] |
All of these have a period of 4 and an orthogonal velocity of c/2. They move two cells up every 4 generations.
| Crab; Quarter [x] | LWSS on HWSS #7 [7] | LWSS on HWSS #8 [7] | MWSS on HWSS #9 [7] | 25-bit c/3 orthogonal spaceship #1 [x] | 25-bit c/3 orthogonal spaceship #2 [x] |
The Crab has a period of 4 and a diagonal velocity of c/4. It moves one cell up and flips diagonally every two generations, effectively moving one cell up and left every 4 generations.
The next three have a period of 4 and an orthogonal velocity of c/2. They move two cells up every 4 generations. The middle one is actually a pseudo-spaceship, rather than an actual spaceship.
The last two have a period of 3 and an orthogonal velocity of c/3. They move one cell up every 3 generations.
Due to the large number of spaceships, these are shown on the Exotic spaceship and Flotilla pages, since most larger spaceships are in these categories.
| Glider; Feather- weight space- ship; FWSS [2] |
The Glider has a period of 4 and a diagonal velocity of c/4. It moves one cell up and flips diagonally every two generations, effectively moving one cell up and left every 4 generations. It is the simplest and most common spaceship in Life, and forms the basis for all syntheses.
| Light- weight space- ship; LWSS; Small fish [3] | Middle- weight space- ship; MWSS; Medium fish [3] | Heavy- weight spaceship; HWSS; Big fish [3] |
These all have a period of 4 and an orthogonal velocity of c/2. They move one cell up and flip from side to side every two generations, effectively moving two cells up every 4 generations. Except for the glider, these are the only common natural spaceships in Life, and are used in some syntheses.
| LWSS on HWSS #3 [6] | LWSS on HWSS #4 [6] | LWSS on MWSS #2 [6] | HWSS on HWSS #4 [6] |
| Crab; Quarter [x] | 25-bit c/3 orthogonal spaceship #1 [x] | 25-bit c/3 orthogonal spaceship #2 [x] |
| Two gliders [4] | Mike Playle's 3c/7 almost- spaceship [x] | Paul Tooke's 3c/7 almost- spaceship [x] |
| Ten- bit- long space- ship (10WSS) [6] | ||
| Eugene Lang- vagen's P6 almost- knight- ship [x] |
Because Eugene Langvagen's knight-ship doesn't quite work, and can't be made to work per se, it fits into this category of "useless objects". However, its discovery is extremely significant, because the very existence of an object this close to working (i.e. it reforms 97% correctly) suggests that other moderately small, working knight-ships are fairly likely to exist in Life.
The same comments also apply to the 3c/7 almost-spaceships. While no working spaceships of this velocity have yet been found, these results strongly suggest that such spaceships are likely to exist.
Related: spaceships in multi-color Life.
Other types: still-lifes, pseudo-still-lifes, oscillators, pseudo-oscillators, oscillators by period, pseudo-oscillators by period, guns, multi-colored Life, basic spaceships and pseudo-spaceships, exotic spaceships, spaceships flotillae, puffers, constellations, methuselahs, not quite stable objects.
See also: Life objects sorted by: counts, frequency of occurrence, cost in gliders, name, size in bits, or type.
Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2013, 2014 by Mark. D. Niemiec.
All rights reserved.
This page was last updated on
2015-02-19.