Space Engine - Blog Posts
Green World
Picture of the Day - October 29, 2018
Lush and green Earth-like planet with life and a large moon orbiting close by.
Orange Gem
Picture of the Day - October 28, 2018
Here we have another Titan-Like world with rings. Seas of liquid methane cover the surface, and a thick hazy nitrogen-methane atmosphere obscures most of the surface.
Evaporating Planets
Picture of the Day - October 27, 2018
These three planets (not comets) close to a white giant star losing their atmospheres. The giant star has expanded so fast that all of the inner planets are superheated to nearly 2,000 F.
Another Moon Shot
Picture of the day - October 26, 2018
A large moon against the backdrop of a stunningly colorful gas giant and it’s rings.
Pluto-Like Double World
Picture of the Day - October 25, 2018
Two frozen worlds very almost identical in their size ratio to one another as the Pluto-Charon double dwarf planet system.
Blue Abyss
Picture of the Day - October 24, 2018
Planet and it’s star viewed against the backdrop of a large nebula.
Busy & Hazy Sky
Picture of the Day 2 - October 23, 2018
Another beautiful aurora shot, looking towards a gas giant under a hazy atmosphere. The Andromeda galaxy is visible to the right of the picture as a hazy bright spot just below the aurora.
The Andromeda Galaxy will be the next galaxy I will be exploring in space engine beginning next month.
Northern Lights
Picture of the Day - October 23, 2018
Auroras shine brilliantly over a polar cyclonic vortex.
Twin Sunset
Picture of the Day 2 - October 22,2018
Two sun’s setting viewed from planetary orbit.
Lunar Silhouettes
Picture of the Day - October 22, 2018
Another gas-giant and its moons. Here the atmosphere of the gas giant and its inner moon glow against the dark background, illuminated by scattered light, viewed from just above the atmosphere of a second satellite.
Lunar Rings
Pictures of the Day - October 21, 2018
Normally, giant planets are the ones with rings, but in some situations a moon of a gas giant can have its own rings. Here we come across such a satellite.
Stormy Night
Picture of the Day - October 20, 2018
Cyclonic storm system dimly lit by a distant sun. Instead of being made of water, this storm and its clouds are made up of dust particles. The planet is a Mars-Like world with a thin carbon dioxide atmosphere and covered in red-colored iron oxide dust
Cold Blue World
Picture of the Day 2 - October 19, 2019
Large hazy blue world rising about an asteroid moon.
Lonely Moon
Picture of the Day - October 19, 2018
Small moon passing in front of a large Super-Earth type planet.
End of the Day
Picture of the Day - October 18, 2018.
Sunset on an alien moon.
Double Moons
Picture of the Day - October 17, 2018
A double transit of two moons across the face of a giant ringed planet.
Picture of the Day 2 - October 17,2018
Another wider angle shot
Earth-Like World
Picture of the Day 2 - October 16, 2018
Here I come across the most Earth-like planet to date. The planet is covered in green vegetation, blue oceans and ice caps at the poles. This planet is located near the galactic core; therefore, the sky is full of bright stars, even more so than globular clusters.
Starry Night
Picture of the Day - October 16, 2018
The sands of a desert world with the sky full of bright stars. This planet orbits a star located within a globular cluster; therefore, many bright stars punctuate the night sky. The bright star near the lower left is the planet’s sun, which is barely discernible from other stars in the sky,
Dry Desert World
2nd Picture of the Day - October 15, 2018
A Mars-Like desert world covered in dunes of iron oxide dust. A small satellite crosses the face of the planet.
Crowded Worlds
Picture of the Day - October 15, 2018
Alien moon and its parent gas giant, looking towards the sun. This system is located within one of the densely packed globular clusters orbiting Triangulum’s center.
Lunar Shadow
Picture of the Day - October 14, 2018
Small satellite casting its shadow across a gas giant.
Gas Giant Eclipse
Picture of the Day - October 13, 2018
The sky of a large moon orbiting a gas giant right before an eclipse.
Blue Titan
Picture of the day - October 12, 2018.
Blue-tinted Titan-Like world with liquid methane oceans and an extensive ring system.
Oculus System - Post 4 (Beautiful Outer Giant)
Here we come across the outer-most planet, a large gas-giant with a violet tint. This giant world has more than 5 times the mass of Jupiter and orbits the sun at an average distance of 7.15 AU. The planet has a beautiful ring system, and is surrounded by a system of 10 spherical satellites.
High Resolution Pics
Picture 1 - Outer-most gas giant - Light Enhanced
Picture 2 - Closeup
Picture 3 - Rising Giant
Picture 4 - Another moon shoot
Picture 5 - Rings over the sly
Picture 6 - Ring Closeup
Oculus System - Post 3 (Cratered Wasteland)
The system’s third planet is a nearly airless Mars-sized world, heavily cratered world. The planet orbits 1.19 AU from the sun, has a mass of just 8.6% that of Earth and roughly half of Earth’s diameter. A tenuous carbon dioxide atmosphere clings to the surface with a surface press of just 1/100,000th that of Earth. Surface temperatures can reach the boiling point of water during the day, and fall nearly -300 °F at night.
High Resolution Pics
Picture 1 - Mercury-like planet
Picture 2 - Two small satellites
Picture 3 - A view from a moon
Picture 4 - Setting Sun.
Picture 5 - Broken Crater
Picture 6 - From just 10 km above the surface.
Picture 7 - The Surface
Oculus System - Post 1 (Introduction)
We are now inside the giant NGC 604 Nebula. I’ve come across this wide binary system consisting of a F4 giant that is almost 16 times brighter than Earth’s sun and a smaller, but still bright G0V type star more than twice the brightness of Sol. The first worlds I am exploring are the ones orbiting the smaller or secondary of the two stars.
Descriptions of the planet’s to follow in the next post.
Space Engine System ID: RS 1229-171-5-23517-58
High Resolution Pics
Picture 1 - Inner-most Planet
Picture 2 - Surface
Picture 3 - Warm Ice-Giant
Picture 4 - System's fourth planet from a satellite
Picture 5 - Double occultation of two moons
Picture 6 - World with Ethane Oceans
Picture 7 - Setting distant 2nd sun
O’Sirus System - Post 4 (Rings)
Two planets in the O’Sirus System have rings, the 7th and 10th planets respectively.
The 7th planet is an ice-world with a thick icy crust floating on a sub-surface ocean. It is roughly 0.30 Earth-masses, has a radius 75% that of Earth and orbits 1.32 AU from the sun. The surface has a carbon dioxide atmosphere of approximately the same pressure as the atmosphere of Mars and surface temperatures of 133 K or -224 °F.
The 10th world is small ice giant 10.5 times more massive than Earth, has a radius 2.8 times larger than Earth and orbits at a distance of 6.02 AU. This world also has a pronounced ring system.
High Resolution Pics
Picture 1 - The 7th Planet
Picture 2 - Ring Closeup
Picture 3 - Another Closeup
Picture 4 - The 10th Planet
Picture 5 - Closeup
Picture 6- Ring Transit
O’Srius System - Post 3 (Stunning World)
Here we come across the smaller component of a double planetary system, being the 9 and 10th planets from the star. This planet is by far the most visually stunning world I have come across in the 6 months of playing space engine.
The world is roughly the same size as Earth, but only 0.58 times the mass. The surface is covered in liquid nitrogen oceans and nitrogen ice-caps. The planet has a surface temperature of 68 K or -337 °F. The atmosphere is composed of nitrogen and argon with a surface pressure of 0.095 atmospheres. The surface has a nitrogen cycle, much the same as Earth has a water cycle.
High Resolution Pics
Picture 1 - Crescent
Picture 2 - Gibbous
Picture 3 -
Picture 4 - River Channels
Picture 5 - Varied terrain
Picture 6 - Polar Cap
Picture 7 - Nitrogen Shoreline
O’Sirus System - Post 2 (Weird Life)
The System’s 6th planet, and first world I’ve come across in my journey that has life on the surface. This is one odd life-supporting world. It is a small world, roughly the size of Mars, but only half of Mars’ mass, with a low average density. The atmosphere is 99.8% carbon dioxide and 0.2% oxygen, with a thickness only 4% that of Earth’s atmosphere. The surface has an average temperature of 181 K or -133 °F. And it has one large moon in orbit.
Unfortunately Space Engine only shows life as coloring on the planet’s surface; therefore, I have no idea what form or appearance it has. Based off of the temperatures and atmospheric composition, this the life likely has has a low metabolic rate that uses a liquid other than just water to metabolize, possibly an Eutectic Water-Ammonia solution. Carbon-based if feasible, but involves significantly different chemistry than we are familiar with. The purple coloring likely an adaptation to utilize the low sunlight levels and probably uses primarily red or near infrared light for photosynthesis.
High Resolution Pics
Picture 1 - Planet and Moon
Picture 2 -
Picture 3 - The Equator
Picture 4 - Northern Ice Cap
Picture 5 - Planet, Moon, Sun, Inner Planets and Andromeda
Picture 6 - The Surface
Picture 7 - Moon and Nebula Rising
Vernier System - Post 3 (4th Planet)
The system’s 4th plant. This planet is a super-Earth orbiting the two suns at an average distance of 3.79 AU. At 4.66 Earth masses and a radius of 1.71 Earth’s the planet is quite large and massive compared to Earth. It has a hydrocarbon rich atmosphere and an average surface temperature of 187 K or -122 °F. 3 large satellites orbit the planet. The surface show evidence of numerous large impact events.
The plant’s large moons orbit close to the planet and are capable of producing double eclipses, a phenomenon only possible in star systems with more than 1 sun.
High Resolution Pictures
Picture 1 - Large battered world.
Picture 2 - Inner-most satellite occulting the planet.
Picture 3 - Large canyon
Picture 4 - Canyon close-up
Picture 5 - Double Eclipse
Picture 6 - Lunar shadow