Planet

The subject of this article is from the Expeditions update.
The information from this article is up-to-date as of 1 June, 2021.

A planet and its moon seen from space (Foundation)

A planet is an astronomical body that moves around a star.

Summary

Dots around a planet indicate moons

A planet is an astronomical body moving in an elliptical orbit around a star. Players will start on a random planet in a star system near the edge of the Euclid galaxy. When players land on another planet, the planet's basic information (weather conditions, flora & fauna frequency and Sentinel activity) will be revealed to the player.

Players may scan a planet before landing, receiving approximate information regarding its biome through an adjective, e.g. Acidic/Tropical, and a specific listing of some valuable resources available on the planet. Terrain and planet type are visible from space, as well as a mostly accurate projection of what will be encountered post landing.

Based on the associated biome, some planets will contain special features that other planets will not possess. For example, the Exotic biome on a planet in the Zuunurt system. (MOGO:0EFD:007C:07AF:019F) displays large hexagons on its surface not found on most other planets.

Moons

Planets may have one or two moons, although most have none. Players can land on moons in the same way as a planet as they are treated in the same manner.

Note that the total number of planets and moons in a specific system will not exceed six. This limits the maximum moons in a system to four.

General information

The universe of No Man's Sky is populated by more than 18 quintillion procedurally-generated planets (18,446,744,073,709,551,616 or 2^64 to be exact) of many sizes, colors, and biomes. Each planet orbits between one and three stars (with one star being by far the most common), creating a cycle of day and night.

Some planets are harmless, without worry or danger, but some can be very dangerous to the extent that the planet cannot be explored because of the danger. Initial names of the planets are procedurally generated and can be hard to pronounce, which is not unusual in a sci-fi game. The first player to discover the planet gets one chance to choose to rename it before uploading the information. Planet naming will go through a standard profanity filter.

Planets of inhabited or formerly inhabited systems will have Points of Interest (i.e. Waypoints or artificial structures) for the player to discover. Uncharted systems as well as Dead planets will only have one artificial point of interest, the portal. On either system type or planet special resources and locations can still be found.

When logging a discovery of a planet on this wiki - please use Template:Planet preload.

Planetary Astrodynamics

All planets and moons in the same star system in No Man's Sky are always tidally locked to each other in the same way as in the real world the Moon is tidally locked to Earth. This means that when a player is standing on a planet - they will always see the same surface of each other planet and moon in the same system.

The duration of daytime in No Man's Sky universe for both planets and moons is called a Sol and takes on average 15 minutes real-time ("real-time" meaning that the day/night cycle continues running even when the game is paused). This implies that a full day (i.e. daylight time plus nighttime) lasts 2 Sols, i.e. 30 minutes real-time. This is caused by all planets in game having the same orbital period that likewise lasts 2 Sols. Moreover, all planets are stationary around their rotation axis (in other words - they do not have a rotation axis), implying the following astrodynamic properties common to all the planets in game:

Property	Value
Orbital period	2 Sols
Rotation period	Inifinite
Year: Sidereal year Tropical year Anomalistic year Synodic year Draconic year	2 Sols
Day: Sidereal day Stellar day	2 Sols

Note however that when observing the night sky from a Biome - Dead planet, distant stars appear to move as if the planet rotates around its axis, which appears to be contradictory to all the planets in game not having a rotation axis.

Moons are likewise stationary around their rotation axis, and moreover moons are also stationary in their orbit around their primary, which means that when standing on a moon's primary - a player will always see its moon as a stationary object in the sky - and vice-versa (i.e. when standing on a moon - its primary will appear to be stationary in the sky, as in fact will all the other planets and moons in this system).

When standing on a planet or moon, Analysis Visor is able to detect geomagnetic planetary coordinates that are shown in the top right corner of the HUD (heads-up display) as a latitude/longitude pair. The planet's geomagnetic North Pole is where latitude = +90.00, while geomagnetic South Pole is where latitude = -90.00.

As all the planets and moons have an infinite rotation period, they would not have geographic poles in the usual sense of the word, however each planet/moon still has exactly 2 antipodal points on its surface that both show the least variability of distance to the system's star compared to any other point on this planet's surface. This results in eternal twilight when standing on or close to these 2 points and Solar Panels producing the standard twilight amount of power of 25 kPs nearly round the clock, and hence these 2 points could be considered to play a similar role to geographic poles of a real-world celestial body that has a rotation axis.

As in real world, these geographic poles do not necessarily coincide with the geomagnetic poles, and in fact could be quite far away from the +/-90.00 latitude coordinate displayed on the Analysis Visor's HUD. As such, locating geographic poles for a planet/moon requires some effort. One way to locate them is to use your starship to fly into space so that the planet of interest is directly between your starship and its star, then waiting until the star starts to emerge from behind the planet, and moves some distance away from it. Now, the line between the planet and the star will show the projection of the planet's geographic equator - so the geographic poles would be the 2 points on that planet's surface that are equidistant from the equator. Another approach is to stand on the planet's surface and observe the sunset, then use your starship to catch up with the sun. After 3-4 catchups your path will eventually converge with the planet's geographic equator, so by taking the geomagnetic coordinates shown on your Analysis Visor's HUD of any 2 points on the equator - it is then possible to calculate the geomagnetic coordinates of the 2 geographic poles.

Characteristics

Planet surface (NEXT)

The following information is displayed when landing on a planet, and in the discovery screen. They influence what you can find on a planet, and what its conditions will be.

• Biome influences the flora, fauna, resources, and the general environmental hazard.
• Weather influences the intensity of the environmental hazard and the presence of Exotic elements.
• Sentinel behaviour influences how strict they are about the player breaking their rules. If red it means they will even attack on sight, which indicates the presence of natural trade commodities.
• Flora influences the amount, and density of flora present on the planet. This rarity can be high, middle, low or none.
• Fauna influences the amount, and density of fauna present on the planet. This rarity can be high, middle, low or none.

The rarity is one of the following terms for both the flora and the fauna. The sequence is taken from the game file.

Rarity - High

1. Abundant
2. High
3. Ample
4. Frequent
5. Full
6. Generous
7. Bountiful
8. Copious
9. Rich
10. Numerous

Rarity - Middle

1. Average
2. Regular
3. Common
4. Typical
5. Ordinary
6. Occasional
7. Numerous
8. Moderate
9. Fair
10. Medium

Rarity - Low

1. Low
2. Scarce
3. Infrequent
4. Rare
5. Limited
6. Sporadic
7. Intermittent
8. Uncommon
9. Few
10. Sparse

Rarity - None

1. None
2. Deficient
3. Undetected
4. Lacking
5. Absent
6. Nonexistent
7. Empty
8. Not Present
9. Devoid
10. Barren
11. Lost

Additional Information

The type of star a planet orbits is important for some biomes to appear. The main example are exotic planets in atypical stars.

Some planets have rings surrounding them, which are made up of asteroids and crystals. However mining in a ring is difficult because as soon as one enters a ring it becomes very hard to see due to the fine particles. Sometimes a planet with a ring may also have a moon, this may cause the ring to clip inside said moon.

All planets bearing water appear "oceanic" from space, meaning several parts of their surface show ocean terrain types and a large percentage of their surface will have pockets of water inside. If one digs down in a valley or plain a layer of underground water can be found. All moons however are pangean in nature. The prevalence of water does not prefer any biome type, but excludes dead and seemingly exotic worlds.

Discovered planets

For a list of discovered planets, see the Planets category page. For a list of pre-release planets, see the Pre-release planets category page.

(When creating a new page for a planet, please use the Planet option from the pre-built templates.)

Name generation

The names are procedurally generated using one of the following styles and in certain cases the Adornment term is used.

The sequence is taken from the game file.

Style

1. ProcNorm
2. ProcNorm + Adornment
3. ProcNorm + Numeral
4. ProcNorm + ShortCode
5. ProcLong + ProcShort
6. ProcShort + LongCode
7. "New" + ProcNorm

The list is based on the planets documented by their original names on the wiki:

• ProcShort: It uses 3-5 letters.
• ProcNorm: It uses 4-9 letters.
• ProcLong : It uses 6-10 letters.
• Numeral: It uses roman numerals, for example V or XVII.
• ShortCode: It uses 3 characters and the format is LNN where L is an upper case letter and N is a numeral, for example S10.
• LongCode: It uses 5 characters and the format is NN/LN where L is an upper case letter and N is a numeral, for example 72/T3.

Adornment

1. Prime
2. Major
3. Minor
4. Alpha
5. Beta
6. Gamma
7. Delta
8. Omega
9. Sigma
10. Tau

Additional information

• The rarity terms for flora and fauna are extracted from the NMS_LOC1_ENGLISH.MBIN (1.77) game file, while the name generation is extracted from the NMS_UPDATE3_ENGLISH.MBIN (1.77) game file.
• There is a 42 character limit when renaming a planet or a moon.

Speculation

It is physically impossible for water to be liquid below -73,15 °C; depending on the pressure it is either solid or gas. Some planets have oceans at this temperature. So, we can assume that not all planets' liquids are made up of water. It is easiest to do this if you forget that the suit voice always refers to liquids as water.

Bugs

When observing the night sky on a Biome - Dead planet, distant stars appear to move as if the planet rotates around its axis, while all the planets in game in fact do not have a rotation axis.

Release history

• Release - An integral part of the initial game release.
• NEXT - terrain and planet type become visible from space.
• Origins - All planets have richer flora, fauna, minerals, and terrain.

Gallery

• 

  Desert Biome Surface
  (NEXT)

• 

  Cold Biome Surface
  (NEXT)

• 

  Picture of a moon, for size comparison to planets.
  (NEXT)

• 

  A small ringed planet.
  (NEXT)

• 

  A medium-sized planet.
  (NEXT)

• 

  A large planet. Only large planets can have moons.
  (NEXT)

• 

  Picture of a moon, for size comparison to planets.
  (Atlas Rises)

• 

  A small planet.
  (Atlas Rises)

• 

  A medium-sized planet.
  (Atlas Rises)

• 

  A large planet. Only large planets can have moons.
  (Atlas Rises)

• 

  Dead planet - part of update 1.30 - Bubbles all over the surface.
  (Atlas Rises)

• 

  Planet surface
  (Pathfinder)

• 

  Desert Biome Surface
  (Pathfinder)

• 

  Cold Biome Surface
  (Pathfinder)

• 

  Planetary surface
  (pre-release)

fr-fd:Planète