Space has planets and so does this game, and some of them you can even land on! Some planets are habitable, others not so much, some are just giant balls of gas, and others are lava planets that can be mined. Here's what you can expect to see on your adventures.
Info about a planet can be accessed by clicking on the planet on the nav console. The most important information is its type, atmosphere, and whether or not it has rings or moons. Everything else you'll just have to find out about once you land the ship.
A planet supporting various biomes, some of which are:
Most of these biomes are easy to traverse, though some of the fauna may not really appreciate your presence. The mountain biomes have a few ores that the miners can get their hands on in a pinch if there's really nothing else to mine.
Hot planets usually in stage 3 of development, these planets are rich in ore, and are the optimal place for miners to work. That's not to say, however, that these planets are danger-free; while the lava can usually be avoided, the fauna are a little more tricky to go around. It's not recommended to keep the ship landed here for too long, since the cold loop of some engines will no doubt lose its efficiency up to the point where they stop generating power all together.
Similar to lava planets except that they aren't currently half molten and on fire, rock planets are ideal places for miners to work when asteroids aren't good enough. They're also usually pretty cold most of the time unless they happen to be located close to the star they orbit.
Ice planets are covered in ice which must be broken before any serious mining can be done, but can sometimes contain useful resources. Don't expect anything rare, though, and expect a lot of ice - ideal if your water reserves are low, one supposes.
Very large celestial bodies that have trapped gas in their gravitational pull, these planets are commonly used by ships with a particle scoop to resupply their gas tanks - literally, some ships still run on hydrogen, most ships value oxygen, and various ingredients that normally must be synthesized can be condensed from the input of the particle scoop. Entering their atmosphere is generally dangerous and one must override a safeguard on the navigation console to carry through with it.
This phenomenon is an interesting occurrence where a film of debris in space, usually asteroids, continuously orbits around a celestial body, forming a ring of sorts. Planets with these rings usually means they only have one or two different ores, though the reason for this is unknown. You can mine the asteroids in the ring by orbiting a planet that has them, which is good for quick mining operations.
Planets can have one or more (sometimes many more) moons, which each can be as individual as planets, though they are of course smaller. They often make good mining fodder but have a more diverse selection of elements than asteroid rings (generally based on the available supplies from the planet they are orbiting.)