Planets
Appearance
There are three main categories of planets: Solid planets, water giants and gas giants. Even moons are considered as planets.
Terrestrial planet
| Image | Class | Color | Exploration Value (with detailed surface scanner?) | Rarity | In game description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Icy planet | White - Grey | ~500cr | Very common | Ice world composed mainly of water ice. Worlds like this will not have much heating in the past, forming in the cooler regions of a star system and have retained many volatiles as solids withing their crust. | |
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Rocky planet |
White - Grey - Light blue - Light brown - Yellow | ~500cr | Common | Rocky world with little or no surface metal content. Worlds like this have lost most of their volatiles due to past heating, and any metallic content will form a small central core. | |
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Rocky ice planet | White - Grey - Light blue - Light brown | ~500cr | Uncommon | Rocky ice world. Typically formed in the cooler regions of star system these worlds have a small metal core and thick rocky mantle with a crust of very deep ice. Geological activity is common in these worlds because of the large quantities of volatiles in the crust, often creating a thin, sometimes seasonal atmosphere. |
| High metal content planet | Brown - Dark brown - Beige | 2,500cr | Uncommon | Metal-rich world with a metallic core. Worlds like this can have metallic ores near the sruface in places, especially around areas of past volcanism. | |
| Metal rich planet | Brown - Black (sometime with visible lava) | ~5,000cr | Rare | ||
| Water world | Blue with green, brown and white | unknown (guess ~10,000cr) | very rare | ||
| Earth-like world | Blue with green, brown and white | ~10,000cr |
Extremely rare |
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| Ammonia world | Light brown | unknown (guess ~10,000cr) | Very rare |
Water Giants
Water Giant
- Very rare.
- Color: Blue
- Exploration value: unknown
Gas Giants
| Image | Class | Exploration Value (with detailed surface scanner?) | Rarity | In game description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | 1,000 - 1,500cr | Rare | Class I or Jovian gas giants have primarily hydrogen and helium atmospheres. Coloration comes from clouds in the upper atmosphere of ammonia, water vapour, hydrogen sulphide, phosphine and sulphur. The temperature at the top of their upper cloud layers is typically less than 150 K. | |
| II | 5,000cr | Very rare | ||
| III | 1,000 - 1,500cr | Rare | Class III gas giants have primarily hydrogen and helium atmospheres without distinctive cloud layers. Their surface temperature typically ranges between 350 K and 800 K. They are primarily blue in colour because of optical scattering in the armosphere - with the chance of wispy cloud layers from sulphides and chlorides. | |
| IV | 1,000 - 1,500cr | Rare | ||
| Gas giant with ammonia-based life | 1,000 - 1,500cr ? | Very rare | Gas giant with ammonia-based life. This is primarily a hydrogen and helium-based atmospheric gas giant, but a little below the surface cloud layers,life exists based in the ammonia-cloud layer. The chemistry of this gaseous region is far from equilibrium, with a surprising excess of oxygen and many carbon-based compounds giving it some vivid colours. As with many such gaseous living systems, it is underpinned by vast quantities of free-floating radioplankton - tiny carbon-based algae, each retaining small quantity of liquid ammonia, extracting their energy from the intese radiation flux. | |
| Gas giant with water-based life. | 1,000 - 1,500cr ? | Very rare | Gas giant with water-based life. This is primarily a hydrogen and helium based atmospheric gas giant, but not far below the surface exists life based in the water-cloud layer just below the atmospheric surface. The chemistry of this gaseous region is far from equilibrium, with a surprising excess of oxygen and many carbon-based compounds giving it some vivid colours. As with many such gaseous living systems, it is underpinned by vast quantities of free-floating radioplankton - tiny carbon-based algae, each retaining small quantity of liquid water, extracting their energy from the intese radiation flux. |