How do you discover something?

[Zorzod]

I guess I don't understand what discovering something actually means. It says I discovered something, but it will also say that someone else has already discovered it. Also, why do "unexplored" planets say they have been mapped out?

[Agony_Aunt]

There are 2 types of discovery

1) Finding something that you have never seen before and isn't in your knowledgebase from the start (so, when you start out, there are many systems/planets around the bubble which are pre-discovered, you can't discover them). So, others may have discovered/mapped them but you haven't. You will see "First discovered by:" when you look at them on the map, but you can still scan them and get money for "discovering" them. You can also map them for extra money. To get these, just basically go any direction for a few hundred LY out of inhabited space and everything will be discoverable by you.

2) The second type is discovering stuff nobody else has discovered. Depending on the direction you go, you may need to travel a few thousand LY out of the bubble. Such objects do not have a "first discovered by" tag. (nor first mapped by).

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

There is a first time for you discovery. And there is a first time for the game discovery.

There can be something that you haven't seen yet, but somebody else has already been there and discovered/mapped it. And there is something that you are the first one to discover, that nobody else has visited yet.

[Sapyx]

Regarding the first question: exploration has been a bit glitched since the 3.3 update dropped, in terms of what the game congratulates you for. It will very often congratulate you for "being first to discover things that lots of other people have discovered. On the other hand, it often forgets to congratulate you for genuine first discoveries. I find it best to simply ignore the congratulations screens.

By this time, you can safely assume that every single planet in every inhabited system has been fully Discovered and Mapped. So if you're just flying about the bubble, you can safely ignore any congratulatory messages about discovering stuff.

Regarding the second question:

Inhabited star systems are divided into two classes: let's call them "major" and "minor" to avoid confusing the terminologies.

"Major" star systems almost always have a population over 1 million. These systems will be fully pre-explored; you will see "Mapped by" Tags on the planets, but will not see "discovered by" Tags.Honking in these systems will reveal all planets and planetary data; the only way you can gain exploration credits in these systems is by getting up close, firing the DSS probes and Mapping planets.

"Minor" star systems almost always have populations less than 1 million. They are treated much the same as an uninhabited system, as far as exploration is concerned: honking the DSS will show the planetary spectrum which you have to scan and decode to resolve; doing this will give you exploration credits. If you just honk and then look at the system map without using the FSS, you can see the planets, but they will all be labelled as "Unexplored". For additional credits, you can also fly up to and Map any planets.