Galaxy

The galaxy is procedurally (i.e. randomly) created by the game's engine. The galaxy consist of Stellar Systems and the Bodies that form them. Interstellar travel around the galaxy is dependent on jump point, a form of faster-than-light travel by means of entering jump drives or jump gates, and re-emerging at the connected system light years away from the starting position.

The galactic map, system map, and system information interfaces provide an complete overview of the galaxy from top to bottom.

Stellar Systems

Sol system map, using the Real-Star setting

Stellar system can consist of:

• at least one sun in the center of the system. As in reality, binary, tertiary and quaternary systems (i.e. having two, three or four suns rotate around each other) are quite common in Aurora. All other bodies rotate around one of these suns. The type of sun (size and color) probably affects the variables of system generation, but apart from that, suns play no further role in the game.
• Planets are large rocks. Whether they have habitable for your race depends on many factors, like gravity, atmospheric pressure or toxic gases. See Terraforming for the details.
• Dwarf planets are small planets inhabited by small, fierce and industrious humanoids who perform extensive mining operations and need alcohol to get through the day. Trading with them is possible, but highly dangerous.
• Moons are rocks rotating around planets. Some moons possess a thin atmosphere and sometimes enough mass and gravity to be habitable.
• Gas Giants are gaseous planets like Jupiter or Saturn, while Super Jovians are extremely large gas giants. You cannot found colonies on gas giants: It is difficult to put anything on their surface since they don't have one.
• Asteroids are smaller rocks rotating around a sun. Mining is possible, but their gravity is too low to make them habitable through normal means, although Underground Infrastructure and Orbital Habitat Modules allows inhabited asteroid bases.
• Comets are chunks of ice and dirt that can be mined, although comet orbits can be problematic (see orbital movement below). They are uninhabitable like asteroids (see above).
• Black Holes are remnants of massive stars that have collapsed at the end of their fusion cycle. Due to their extreme gravity, black hole systems pose significant dangers or at least obstacles to spaceship traffic.
• Nebulae are interstellar clouds of dust, hydrogen and other ionized gases. Nebula systems pose challenges for naval combat.

Empty star systems containing only a sun but no other bodies are commonly found. They are depicted as systems with a black circle in the center in the Galaxy Map.

Orbital movement

All bodies rotate around a sun, while moons also rotate around a planet. Comets have highly eccentric elliptical orbits, simulated in the game as a long, straight line on which they move towards the central star, then back to the other end of the line. For example, the comet Brooks in the Sol system has an "orbital line" that is 46 billion km long. You can see comet orbits by switching on "Comet Paths" in the Display tab.

Orbital movement is not constant, but takes place only once every five days to save CPU time.

Orbital motion for Planets/Moons and Asteroids can be switched on or off in the Game Settings, saving a little CPU time when playing in very large universes.

Very large systems

Sometimes you'll encounter systems, typically of a multi-star variant, where some of the bodies are orbiting the central star in distances of dozens or even hundreds of billion kilometers, too far for your explorers to reach and examine them and come back. If the outlying bodies include a gas giant, there might be Lagrange Points present that allow instant travel to them. Otherwise you have to postpone exploration until you possess the engine technology to make such long journeys possible.

On the galactic map, systems are combined into single nodes, connected by a network of jump points.

System Bodies

Sol system graphic.

Celestial body in Aurora may refer to various non-stellar objects such as star, planets, moons, asteroids and comets, collectively forming a star system. They occur in a great variety of different compositions, masses, and surface conditions. Notable difference:

• Super-jovian and Gas Giant - Massive planets, that can't be colonized, however, they can be harvested for Sorium. Additionally, every Super-jovian have Lagrange Points, an Intra-system Jump.

• Asteroids and Comets are generally the small and inhospitable, but rich in minerals which can be mined from these using automated mines. Asteroids are the primary component of asteroid belts, while Comets...

Definitions: A star is a luminous sphere of plasma held together by its own gravity. The region around a star that is held by its gravity, is called a star system. Planets are celestial bodies that orbiting a star. Moons are natural satellite that orbits a planet. In Aurora Planets and Moons are divided into several sub-types according to their size. Planets: Superjovian, Gas Giant, Terrestrial Planet, Dwarf Planet and Asteroid. Moons: Moons, Terrestrial Moon, Small Terrestrial, Large Moon, Moon, Small Moon

Environment

Each world may contain valuable minerals, which can be mined to fuel your economy. A geological survey can be conducted to revealing the mineral content of each body and potentially any abandoned alien ruins on it.

Some planets are habitable, enabling the creation of planetary settlements. Each world's habitability is dictated by its gravity, atmospheric makeup and temperature.

See also: Terraforming

Galaxy Generation

In the beginning.. When you start a new game you will set up the galaxy in terms of size, who you are playing as, and who you are going to go up against. Aurora allows the player to create a procedurally generated galaxy containing hundreds of systems. New systems are generated either entirely from scratch, or are optionally derived from actual star system data (Starting with Sol, Earth) with only the System bodies details being randomized. Each system may contain other empires.