Sunday 5 October 2008

Pic of the day: We've zoomed out more from yesterday's picture.

Zooming forward

The picture may look similar to last time. But actually, the small stars in today's picture are the big stars in yesterday's. The small stars yesterday have faded to dim red dots, and the dim red dots (the ordinary stars from Wednesday) are invisible.

It won't continue that way forever, there is a change coming soon. But already in today's picture, we are surveying a field with hundreds of potentially life-bearing planets. Most of them have very simple life or none at all. But a few already have spacefaring species, and these fairly rapidly start colonizing nearby star systems. Depending on what difficulty you play on, you may still be able to find some free stars close to home. And as you keep playing, you get access to better engines and energy storage, so you can travel further and further away from home, creating a large space empire. Exactly how large is up to you.