Interstellar Terrain
Basic Information
This page is a list of Stellar Phenomena, Solar Phenomena, and Celestial Bodies. Some links are general categories of interstellar phenomena, other links are to specific stars or planets. There's also several links to planetary-scale (or larger) Megastructures. This page is a catch-all list of interesting places and objects in the cosmos. It includes real objects, lots of hypothetical ones, and more than a few things that have been disproven but could still be interesting for gaming.
- ʻOumuamua - the first known interstellar object to pass near our sun
- 2 Pallas
- 3 Cassiopeiae
- 34 Tauri
- 3753 Cruithne - a quasi-satellite of earth, an asteroid that orbits the sun in time with the earth.
- 90377 Sedna
- 90482 Orcus
- 99942 Apophis - a near-earth asteroid that may kill millions in 2029 or 2036
- Accretion Disk - a spiral of matter feeding into a young star or black hole
- Active Galaxy - a galaxy with an active nucleus
- Active Galactic Nucleus - a galaxy with a supermassive black hole in the center, which emits extremely bright energy and radiation
- Alderson Disk - a megastructure shaped like a giant CD, with a star in the central hole
- Algol - the "Demon Star", a variable star in the constellation Pegasus
- Algol Variables - eclipsing binary stars, named for the most famous pair of its class
- Alindas
- Alpha Cygni variables
- Alpha2 CVn stars
- Amor Asteroid
- Andromeda Galaxy - the nearest Galaxy outside our own
- Ap and Bp Stars - a class A and B stars with peculiar chemical composition, possibly including unique elements never seen before
- Apoheles
- Apollo Asteroid
- Arjuna Asteroid
- Asterisms
- Asteroid - small rocky body, larger than a meteoroid but smaller than a planet
- Asteroid belt - a large group of asteroids orbiting our Sun between Mars and Jupiter (or, generically, similar belts around other stars)
- Astrochicken - a genetically engineered self-replicating cyborg explorer
- Asteroseismology
- Astrometric binaries
- Atens
- Azathoth
- Babcock Model
- Barium stars
- Barred spiral galaxies
- Beta Cephei variables
- Beta Lyrae stars
- Binary stars - two stars in close proximity, orbiting a point in space that is their collective center of gravity
- Black dwarf - a white dwarf that has cooled and no longer emits heat or light
- Black hole - a collapsed star with gravity so strong not even light can escape it
- Black hole firewall - this may make it impossible to cross the event horizon of a black hole
- Black String
- Blanet
- Blazars
- Blitzar
- Blue Dwarf (Red Dwarf Stage)
- Blue star
- Blue stragglers
- Blue supergiant star
- Blue-white stars
- Bok globules - cold, dense, opaque clouds of gas that sometimes give birth to stars
- Bolide - an aerial fireball or explosion
- Boson Star
- Bow Shock
- Bright giant star
- Brightest Cluster Galaxy
- Brown Dwarf - larger than a planet, smaller than a star. No hydrogen fusion
- Bubbleworld - an artificial hollow world made by inflating an asteroid
- Carbon Detonation
- Carbon Planet - a planet made mostly of carbon instead of silicon-oxygen compounds
- Carbon star
- Cataclysmic variable star
- Centaur (minor planet)
- Central Fire
- Cepheid variables
- Ceres (dwarf planet)
- Chiron (hypothetical moon)
- Chthonian planets - the rocky core left when a Gas Giant loses its gas
- Circumstellar matter
- Circumbinary Planet
- Class A Star - blue-white stars a little larger than our own
- Class B Star - large hot blue stars often clustered in a molecular cloud
- Class C star - carbon stars, red giants nearing the ends of their lives
- Class D star - white dwarf stars - low mass stars that have shrunk to planet size and are cooling down
- Class F Star - a star a little hotter, larger, and whiter than our Sun
- Class G Star - a star with similar temperature and chemistry to our Sun
- Class K Star - an orange star a little colder than our Sun
- Class L star - cool dwarf stars emiting red and infrared light
- Class M Star - 76% of the main sequence stars in our region of the galaxy
- Class O Star - huge hot ultraviolet stars that burn out fairly quickly
- Class P star - not actually stars, but rather planetary nebula
- Class Q star - not actually stars, but nova
- Class S star - giant carbon-monoxide-laden stars that otherwise have traits in common with Class M and Class C
- Class T star - cool methane brown dwarfs
- Class W star - dying blue supergiants
- Class Y star - a hypothetical class of ultra-cool brown dwarfs
- Close binaries
- Closed Timelike Loop
- Co-Orbital Moons - two moons in the same orbital path. In some cases, they swap positions
- Collapsars or Hypernovae
- Comet - similar to an asteroid, but with a temporary atmosphere and gassy tail
- Compact star
- Constellation
- Contact binaries
- Coreless Planet
- Coronal mass ejection - a fast- and far- traveling blast of energy and plasma released from a star.
- Cosmic background radiation
- Cosmic microwave background radiation
- Cosmic Ray
- Cosmic string
- Cosmos
- Counter-Earth
- Cthonian Planet - the rocky core left when a Gas Giant loses its gas
- Cubewanos
- Cybele asteroid
- Cygnus X-3
- Damocloid asteroid
- Daemons In Astrophysics - subatomic black holes, a form of dark matter
- Dark Energy Star
- Dark Energy - invisible and hypothetical energy speeding our universe towards heat death
- Dark Fluid
- Dark Galaxy
- Dark Matter - this invisible matter exists in the universe at 5 times the frequency of normal matter
- Dark Matter Halo - a large collection of dark matter outside and ringing a galaxy
- Dark Matter Star
- Dark nebulae
- Dark Side of the Moon
- Dark Side (Tidal Locking)
- Dark Star
- Debris disks
- Deimos (moon) - the smaller of Mars two moons
- Delta Scuti variables
- Detached binaries
- Diamond Planet - a planet composed almost entirely of crystallized carbon and oxygen
- Domain wall
- Double Planet - two very close planets (or one planet and a large moon) that have gravitational affects on each other
- Dwarf (Main sequence) stars
- Dwarf Galaxy
- Dwarf nova
- Dwarf planet - a small irregular planet that has not cleared other debris from its orbital path
- Dysnomia (moon)
- Dyson Sphere - a class of stellar engine
- Dyson Bubble - a collection of statites around a star to collect most of it's energy
- Dyson Net - a net connecting the solar collectors of one of the other forms of Dyson Sphere
- Dyson Ring - a single "equator" of a Dyson Swarm, one row of satellites
- Dyson Shell - the most popular concept, yet the least stable one. A solid shell all around a star.
- Dyson Swarm - a collection of orbiting solar power satellites and space habitats
- Earth - a very familiar planet, you've probably heard of it
- Earth's second moon
- Eccentric Jupiter
- Eclipsing binaries
- Electroweak Star - a stellar remnant about the size of an apple, but weighing twice as much as entire world
- Ellerman Bombs - a type of small solar flare
- Elliptical galaxies
- Emission nebulae
- Eos
- Ergosphere
- Eris (dwarf planet)
- Eruptive variables
- Event Horizon - the "point of no return" in terms of proximity to a black hole
- Exoplanet
- Extrasolar Moon
- Extremal Black Hole
- Extrinsic variables
- exomoon
- Eyeball Planet
- Facula
- Far Side Of The Moon
- Fermi Glow
- Filaments
- Flare stars
- Frozen Star
- FU Orionis variables
- Fuzzball (string theory)
- G V star - a star with similar size, temperature and chemistry to our sun
- Galactic bars
- Galactic bulges
- Galactic coronae
- Galactic cosmic ray
- Galactic halos
- Galactic rings
- Galaxy clusters
- Galaxy components
- Galaxy groups
- Galaxy - a collection of millions to hundreds of trillions of stars and all that goes with them
- Gamma-ray burst emission mechanisms
- Gamma-ray burst progenitors
- Gamma-ray burst
- Gas Giant - a huge planet made mostly of gases, with no surface to land on
- Giant ellipticals
- Giant stars
- Gliese 581g - one specific star that's suspected to have a planet in its Goldilocks Zone
- Globular clusters
- Globus Cassus - a proposal to turn our planet itself into a stellar megastructure
- Goldilocks Planet - not too hot, not too cold, just right for sustaining earth-like water, atmosphere, and life
- Goldilocks Zone - the area around a star where a potentially habitable planet might exist
- Gravastar
- Gravitational Collapse
- Gravitational Radiation
- Gravitational Singularity
- Gravitational Wave
- Gravity Darkening
- Gravity
- Griquas
- H I regions
- H II regions
- HabStar - the category of stars most likely to promote or support life as we know it
- Halo stars - fast-moving stars with an eccentric orbit that takes them outside the usual plane of the Milky Way
- Haumea (dwarf planet)
- Hawking Radiation
- HD 140283 - one of the oldest known stars in the universe, aka Methuselah's Star
- Heavy-Gravity Planet - a planet with significantly more gravity than the earth
- Helioseismology
- Helium Planet
- Helium White Dwarf - a former star whose mass was stolen away by a larger star
- Hercules X-1
- Hildas
- Hot Comet - a comet with a radioactive clay core, the perfect spawning bed for Panspermia
- Hot Dark Matter - neutrinos and other non-baryonic subatomic particles moving near the speed of light
- Hot Jupiters - a Jovian planet orbiting its star very closely, and thus extremely hot and bright
- Hot Neptunes - an Ice Giant (planet) that's been superheated and is on the cusp of boiling
- Hungarias
- Hypergiant - the largest of the stars; huge and unstable
- Hypernova - a supernova on an even larger scale; caused by the death of a hypergiant
- Hyperon Star
- Hypervelocity Star - a rogue star flying fast enough it will one day escape our galaxy
- Hypothetical Fifth Gas Giant
- Hypothetical planet types
- Hypothetical stars
- Ice Giant (Planet) - a gas giant made of water, ammonia and methane
- Intergalactic medium
- Intermediate Polar
- Intermediate-Mass Black Hole
- Intermediate-mass black holes
- Interplanetary medium
- Interstellar medium - the handful of molecules that exist in the vacuum of space
- Interstellar Planet
- Intrinsic variables
- Irregular galaxies
- Irregular variables
- Iron Planet
- Jovian Planet - a gas giant made of hydrogen and helium
- JuMBOs - Jupiter-Mass Binary Objects
- Jupiter trojans
- Jupiter - the largest planet in our solar system
- K V Star - a little smaller and colder than our sun, but with a longer expected life-span
- Kolob
- Koronis
- Krasnikov tube - a one-way wormhole / time machine created in the wake of a space ship going the other way
- Kugelblitz (astrophysics)
- Kuiper Belt
- L-type star
- Lagrange point - A gravitationally stable location between two massive objects
- Lenticular galaxies
- Light-Gravity Planet
- Lilith (hypothetical moon)
- Limb Darkening
- Local Group - the supergroup of galaxies that includes the Milky Way and Andromeda
- Luminous blue variables
- Luminous Red Nova
- MACHOs - a category of dark matter consisting of collapsed and dim stars, black holes, etc.
- Magnetar - a tiny neutron star or pulsar with a devastating magnetic field, it emits gamma rays and x-rays
- Magnetic cloud
- Magnetic reconnection
- Magnetospheric eternally collapsing object
- Main sequence stars
- Makemake (dwarf planet)
- Marias
- Mars trojans
- Mars-crossers
- Mars - fourth planet from our sun, with a very thin atmosphere and ice-capped poles
- Massive Compact Halo Object - a dim dwarf star, rogue planetoid, or other form of baryonic dark matter
- Matrioshka Brain - a stellar megastructure that uses the local sun to power a giant hypercomputer
- Mercury - a planet within our solar system, closest one to the sun
- Mercury's moon
- Metallic A-type stars
- Meteor shower
- Meteor - a space rock blazing through the earth's atmosphere
- Meteorite - the remains of a meteor or meteorite after it crashed on Earth
- Meteoroids - space rocks of not much more than a meter in diameter
- "Methuselah's Star" - one of the oldest known stars in the universe, aka HD 140283
- Micro Black Hole
- Micrometeoroid - a tiny fleck of rock floating in space and probably about to wreck your spaceship
- Milkdromeda - the eventual single elliptical galaxy that will be formed when the Local Group merges together
- Milky Way - the galaxy we are in as you read this
- Mini-Neptune - the most common type of planet in the galaxy, according to the Kepler telescope
- Mira variable - a pulsating Red Giant that is preparing to turn into a White Dwarf Star
- Mirror Matter - a hypothetical form of matter that we can't see or touch, but can feel its gravity
- Mirror Matter Star - an entire star made from mirror matter
- Molecular cloud
- Moon - a natural satellite orbiting a planet. For our moon, see The Moon.
- Moreton wave
- Multiple star system
- Naked Singularity
- Natural Satellite
- Near-Earth asteroids - asteroids that pass within or near the earth's orbital route, and may one day crash in to us
- Nebulae
- Neith (hypothetical moon) - a non-existent moon that people used to think orbited Venus
- Nemesis (star) - a hypothetical dark binary twin to our own sun, and possible cause of mass extinctions
- Neptune trojans
- Neptune - 8th planet from our sun, an ice giant planet
- Neutron Star - a super-dense remnant left after a large star has gone supernova
- Nibiru
- Niven Ring
- Nova
- Nysas
- Ocean planet - a planet covered by oceans hundreds of kilometers deep, with no surface land at all
- ʻOumuamua
- Oort cloud - the swarm of comets in extremely far orbit of our sun
- Open clusters
- Optical binaries
- Orange stars
- Orbital
- Orphan Planet
- Other Moons of Earth
- Outer planet crossers
- P Cygni stars
- Pallas
- Peculiar A-type stars
- Peculiar stars
- Phaeton (hypothetical planet)
- Phobos (moon) - the larger of Mars two moons, but still quite small. Good place for a skyhook.
- Phocaeas
- Photon Sphere
- Plage (astronomy)
- Planck Star
- Planet - a rounded body orbiting a star
- Planet V
- Planet X
- Planetary nebulae
- Planetary system
- Planetoid - a large asteroid, but not quite large enough or rounded enough to be a planet
- Planets beyond Neptune
- Plerions
- Ploonet
- Plutinos
- Pluto - a ball of rock and ice that we used to call the ninth planet
- Polar (cataclysmic variable)
- Population I stars
- Population II stars
- Population III stars
- Preon stars
- Primordial Black Hole
- Proplyds
- Protoplanetary disks
- Protostars
- Pulsar Planet
- Pulsar - a rapidly rotating neutron star that emits a pulsing beam of energy
- Pulse Planet
- Rogue Planet - a planet that is not orbiting a star, but instead floating free in the void
- Pulsating variables
- Q Star
- Quark star - a neutron star comprised of degenerate quark matter
- Quasar
- Quasi-Star
- R Coronae Borealis variables
- Radio galaxies
- Rama (Spacecraft)
- RAMBOs - a star cluster comprised of brown dwarf and white dwarf stars
- Random Planetary System - let us build an entire star system for you instantly!
- Red Dwarf - a dim red star half the size (or less) of our Sun
- Red giant stars
- Red stars
- Red supergiant stars
- Reflection nebulae
- Ring galaxies
- Rogue Planet - a planet hurtling through void instead of orbiting a star
- Rotating Black Hole - a black hole with a ring-like shape and wormhole properties
- Rotating ellipsoidal variables
- Rotating variables
- RR Lyrae variables
- RV Tauri variables
- Runaway Star - a star that is moving faster or in a different direction than other nearby stars
- S/2000 J 11
- S-type stars
- satellites
- Saturn - sixth planet from our sun, a Jovian Gas Giant
- Scattered Disk Objects
- Sedna
- Semidetached binaries
- Semiregular variables
- Seven Suns
- Seyfert galaxies
- Shell stars
- Shkadov Thruster - a stellar megastructure that literally moves a star or solar system
- Single star systems
- Soft X-Ray Transient
- Solar Analog - a solitary star that is photometrically similar to our Sun
- Solar Cycle
- Solar Flare
- Solar Maximum
- Solar Proton Event
- Solar System - the planetary system containing our Earth, Sun and other nearby celestial bodies
- Solar Twin - a star very similar to our Sun - a G2V yellow dwarf 3.5 to 5.6 billion years old, with similar chemistry
- Solar-Type - a star superficially similar to our Sun
- Solar Wind
- Space Dust - extremely tiny particles in space, smaller than a micrometeorite
- Space Hurricane - a swirling plasma storm in the upper atmosphere of a planet
- Space Weather
- Spaghettification
- Spectroscopic binaries
- Spicule (solar physics)
- Spiral arm
- Spiral galaxy
- Star cluster
- Star system
- Star - a large, spherical body, experiencing nuclear fusion at its core
- Star of Bethlehem
- Starburst galaxy
- Starspot
- Statite - an artificial satellite designed to maintain a stationary position relative to its sun
- Stellar associations
- Stellar black hole
- Stellar Engine - a megastructure that moves a star or monopolizes the energy from a star
- Stellar groupings
- Stellar mass loss
- Stellar Megastructure - a megastructure at least the size of a planet, or a group of megastructures collectively as large
- Stellar Nursery
- Strange Planet - a planet rendered deadly and uninhabitable by run-away strange matter conversion
- Strange Star - a quark star made of "infectious" strange matter
- Sub-brown dwarfs
- Subdwarf stars
- Subgiant stars
- Sub-Neptune - the most common type of planet in our galaxy, according to the Kepler telescope
- Sun - the star the Earth orbits
- Sunspot
- Super-Earths - a planet larger than the Earth, but not as big as a Gas Giant
- Superbolide - a massive aerial fireball or explosion
- Superclusters
- Supergiant stars
- Supergiant
- Superhabitable Planet
- Supermassive black hole
- Supernova remnants
- Supernova - a devastating natural explosion that rips an old Star apart
- Symbiotic variables
- T Tauri variables
- T-type star
- Telescope Array Project
- Terrestrial Planet - a planet with a rocky crust
- The Moon - That big pale rocky thing you've probably seen overhead
- Theia (planet) - the hypothetical planet that crashed into the earth long ago, creating our moon from the impact debris
- Themis (hypothetical moon)
- Thick disk stars
- Thick disks
- Thin disks
- Thorne-Zytkow Object - a neutron star inside a red giant star, forming a combined hybrid star-like object
- Thule
- Tipler Cylinder - a gigantic time machine shaped like a cylinder
- Titan (moon) - one of Saturn's moons, sporting oceans of hydrocarbons
- Topopolis - a megastructure shaped like spaghetti or a celtic knot wrapped around a star
- Trans-Neptunian objects
- Transiting planets
- Triple star systems
- Trojan asteroid
- Trojan planet - a small planet following in the same stellar orbit as a larger planet
- Twotinos
- Tyche (hypothetical planet) - a specific hypothetical planet that might be hidden in the oort cloud
- Type I supernova
- Type II supernova
- Unidentified Flying Object
- Universe
- Unresolved binaries
- Uranus - 7th planet from our sun, an "ice giant" planet
- Variable stars
- Venus - second closest planet to our sun, scorchingly hot and smothered by a thick atmosphere
- Vesta - the only asteroid visible from earth with the naked eye
- Visual binaries
- Voids
- Von Neumann Probe - unmanned robotic self-replicating spacecraft
- Vulcan (hypothetical planet)
- Vulcanoid
- W Ursae Majoris stars
- W Virginis variables
- Weakly Interacting Massive Particle - slow and cold dark matter particles that pass right through you without you noticing
- White Dwarf Star - a former star that cooled down to sub-fusion temperatures and shed most of its mass
- White Hole - the inverse of a black hole, it's a spot that things and light fall out of, not into
- White stars
- WIMPs - slow and cold dark matter particles that pass right through you without you noticing
- Wolf number
- Wolf-Rayet stars
- WormHole - a shortcut through space, connecting two distant points at FTL speeds
- Wormwood (Star)
- X-ray binaries
- X-ray burster
- Yellow hypergiant
- Yellow stars
- Yellow-white stars
- Young stellar objects
- Yuggoth
- Zodiacal Cloud
See also Space Exposure for the main terrain hazard of space.
See also Stellar Classification for an explanation of how the Stars are classified and rated.
See also Random Planetary System for a randomly-generated star system or planetary system of your very own.
See also Space Disaster for pages about things that can go wrong as you encounter the interstellar terrain.
Interstellar Terrain Tropes
Where familiarity or the rule of cool triumphs over science. Most are a case of Space Does Not Work That Way
- Asteroid Thicket
- Death World
- Gravity Sucks
- Lost Technology of the Precursors
- Negative Space Wedgie
- Planet of Hats
- Single Biome Planet
- Swirly Energy Thingy
- Unknown Phenomenon
- Unrealistic Black Hole
- Weird Moon
Sources
Bibliography
3. NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day - Features pictures of much of this interstellar terrain.
Game and Story Use
- The links on this page should prove useful if you need a hazard, destination, or scenery for a game involving spacecraft.
- Most of the things on this list may be encountered by space-faring PCs.
- However, some (such as the various theorized black hole variants and some dark matter candidates) may conflict with each other. Unless you really know what you're doing, it's probably best to stick to just one black hole theory, and just one dark matter theory, per campaign.
- To avoid the most common mistakes that players might call you on, see Space Does Not Work That Way.
- Remember, what space has the most of, more than anything else, is empty space. No need to make your universe too crowded. See Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale for the big picture.
page revision: 81, last edited: 17 Jan 2024 08:37