Planet

Planets are astronomical bodies that orbit a star. There are thousands of planets in each galaxy generated, with many of them hosting alien races that players can interact with. Uninhabited planets can be explored using landers and generate resources, tech, and other goodies necessary to survive in the galaxy.

Landers aren't always capable of landing on a planet and exploring it safely. Always check the hazard indicator in the lower right in order to see which lander upgrades you need:
 * Weather: Bad weather can batter and destroy a lander easily. Identified by moving clouds and other weather features, weather can be mitigated with armor upgrades.
 * Heat: Frozen planets aren't much of a problem and neither are temperate ones. It's when things heat up that the lander is in danger. Installing heat shields allows to brave fiery wolds.
 * Toxic: Toxic worlds, for one reason or another, are a particular problem to explore. Install toxic shields to survive the corrosive environment.

Planet classes

 * Acid: Acid worlds are highly toxic worlds that can be recognized from space by their almost neon color. They are rich in a variety of compounds including Hydrochloric Acid, Astatine, Nitric Acid and Phosphoric Acid.
 * Canyon: These worlds have distinctive canyons on their surface. Many as large or ever larger than Earth's Grand Canyon. We believe most of these were formed from meteorological activity but some have signs of having been caused by recent and violent tectonic changes.
 * Crystaline: Distinctive from a distance with their glittering gem-like surface. We are still not sure how these crystalline planets form. Most seem to have relatively little to no atmosphere but whatever process forms them also leaves a great deal of residual radioactivity. These worlds can be exploited for rare resources. However, great care must be taken due to their latent toxicity which is hostile to carbon based lifeforms such as humans.
 * Desert: Almost Martian like in size and appearance. These worlds have a minimum amount of surface water. Even so, this has not stopped advanced ecologies from evolving on many of these worlds ranging from simple flora and fauna up to herd animals and even some frightfully large arthropods.
 * Frozen: We are finding a disturbing high ratio of these worlds. Though once having large bodies of liquid water something or someone has altered their orbits or the star they orbit resulting in a drop of surface temperature and freezing of the planet's surface. Some of these worlds seem to still have liquid oceans underneath the frozen surface and even thriving underwater ecologies. Xenobiologists have requested special attention to be paid to these subsurface oceans whilst we investigate what happened to them.
 * Rocky: These atmosphere-devoid planets and moons vary a great deal. Although neither geologically interesting nor ecologically diverse, they sometimes have valuable resources due to meteor impacts over millions of years.
 * Terrestrial: These worlds are named after our own Earth, referred to as Terra in Latin. Terrestrial worlds have similar gravity, atmosphere and climate to our own world and often support varied flora and fauna which has either evolved natively or being introduced via diaspora from other worlds. These worlds make ideal colony candidates and Star Control has standing orders to make note of such uninhabited worlds within local space.
 * Volcanic: The most commonly geologically active bodies in most star systems are often moons orbiting Jovian planets. The stresses of their orbits along with other moons often creates stresses beneath and even above the surface of these rocky worlds. These worlds often have radioactive isotopes which we can use for special material fabrication. Landing parties should be advised to not spend too long on the surface of these worlds however due to the extreme geological and volcanic activity.
 * Gas Giant

Temperature

 * -253 - -187: Cold, not unlike the rest of space
 * -183 - -106: Cold but perfectly safe
 * -84 - 93: Climate is perfectly safe for travel by lander
 * 101 - 199: Will cause heat damage to hull
 * 200 - 298: Will cause moderate heat damage to lander hull
 * 463: Will cause significant heat damage to lander

Weather

 * Stable: Landing should be easy.
 * Mild: Winds will make landing more challenging.
 * Moderate: Winds will make landing more challenging.
 * Rough: The atmosphere will make landing difficult.
 * Harsh: The atmosphere will make landing difficult.
 * Severe: The atmosphere will make landing very difficult.
 * Turbulent: The atmosphere will make landing very difficult.
 * Deadly: It is unlikely you will be able to land here safely.
 * Devastating: It is unlikely you will be able to land here safely.
 * Unstable: It is unlikely you will be able to land here safely.

Gravity

 * 0.35-1.84: A level of gravity one might expect on a moon or other small planetoid
 * 1.99-3.71: Very low gravitational pull
 * 3.94-5.09: Noticeably lower gravity than Earth
 * 6.65-7.72: Mildly lower than Earth's gravity
 * 7.94-9.75: Slightly lower than Earth's gravity
 * 9.81-11.74: Earth-like gravity
 * 11.98-13.49: Higher than Earth gravity
 * 13.80-15.54: Much higher than Earth's gravity
 * 15.69-16.40: Extremely heavy gravity
 * 18.60: Crushingly high gravitational force
 * 24.30-37.45: Nigh-inescapable gravitational pull

Biology

 * Inhospitable: Almost entirely barren
 * Lifeless: Planet is virtually uninhabitable
 * Sparse: Planet may have scant traces of life
 * Scattered: Planet shows rudimentary signs of life
 * Developing: Planet's ecosystem is showing signs of growth
 * Moderate: Planet's ecosystem is showing signs of growth
 * Abundant (yellow): Ecosystem seems to be developing very healthily
 * Abundant (orange): Planet seems to be experiencing an unusual upswelling of life
 * Abundant (red): Planet is at capacity for organic activity

Toxicity

 * Nontoxic: Planet is nontoxic or nearly nontoxic
 * Mild: Planet is nontoxic or nearly nontoxic
 * Moderate: Planet shows signs of considerable toxicity
 * Significant: Planet shows signs of considerable toxicity
 * Severe: Planet's composition is demonstrably hazardous and is to be treated with extreme caution
 * Deadly: Planet's chemistry is incompatible with life and extremely volatile
 * Lethal: Planet's chemistry is incompatible with life and extremely volatile