A list of cool things to find in SpaceEngine (real objects only)

This guide will tell you some of the many cool and interesting things that you can find within the simulation. I compiled this list mainly from watching "How the Universe Works", and every time they mentioned something interesting I'd write it down and go check it out on Space Engine. If you haven't watched it, I suggest you do. The guide is aimed at new players who may not know where to begin, and existing players who want to find something they've maybe not seen before!

It's also worth mentioning that every single object here is real, and not randomly generated. I will be adding more things when I learn about them or think of them, as long as they appear in the simulation. I will aim to work on it as much as I can in the next few weeks to come.

I have taken a lot of time and effort to make sure that what I have written here is identical to what it's named in Space Engine so that you can find it easily.

Are you wondering how to search in the simulation? Click the magnifying glass on the left hand side and "enter object name". All you have to do is copy and paste the keywords in bold exactly as I have written them below, and enjoy!

Planets

1. HD 189733 b - Extremely windy exoplanet, with glass winds up to 5,400 mph. The unique composition of the planet creates glass shards that get blown about. To put the speed of the glass shards into perspective, if you were travelling at 5,400 mph, you could travel around the world in around 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Of course, you can't see the wind on Space Engine, but the planet itself is nice to look at and wonder what would happen to you if you went there.

2. V1400 Cen b - (J1407b) This is what is known as Super Saturn. This is an absolute must see, and one of the coolest things I've ever seen in the simulation. It's exactly as it sounds, really. Depending on your preferred settings, you might have to put it in a different mode (HDR, manual, auto) to see it properly.

3. WASP-12 b - A planet which is so close to its parent star that it is being destroyed, leaving it in an odd shape. See for yourself how close it is to its star!

4. Kepler-10 c - A "mega Earth", which due to its size should in theory be a gas giant. Also, nice to look at.

5. PSR B1620-26 b - The oldest known planet in the universe, at 13 BILLION years old. It sits in a cluster of more than 100,000 stars and orbits - and has probably outlived - 2 dead stars.

6. Kepler-438 b - Considered by many as a very earth-like planet, which is around the same size and mass of our own. This planet orbits in its stars Goldilocks zone. Unfortunately, even though it appears like to look like earth, it was deemed as uninhabitable due to its radiation. (Maybe life could have adapted to it, though, it's impossible to know..)

7. TrES-4 b - One of the largest exoplanets ever found. Compared to earth which is 12,756 km, TrES-4 b is around 230,000km. You can actually see how large it is compared to its star in the simulation.

8. Kepler-78 b - Completing one earth year every 8 and a half hours, it's said that Kepler-78 b is 40 times closer to its star than Mercury is to our sun. The planet is currently in the process of being destroyed.

9. COCONUTS-2 A b - This planet has the longest known exoplanet orbital period, and I'll leave you to find out how long its orbit is. Put it this way, one year on COCONUTS-2 A b would be over 3000 earth years, and rather obviously, it is completely dark and freezing. (credit to @proteusthe)

10. HD 20782 b - This gas giant has an orbit with an eccentricity of 0.97, the most eccentric orbit of any known exoplanet. This is the kind of orbit you'd expect to find with Halley-type comets, not a planet of 2 Jupiter masses. It's stretched orbit also results in extreme temperature swings. (credit to @proteusthe)

Stars

1. UY Sct - (UY Scuti), one of the largest stars ever discovered. It is a red super-giant which has a radius of 1.18b km, and a diameter of 2.37b km. To put that into perspective, you can fit around 5 BILLION of our sun into it.

2. Stephenson 2-18 - The official largest known star. A red super-giant which has a diameter of 3b km and could fit 10 BILLION of our sun into it. That's twice as many suns as UY Scuti.

3. Achernar - the flattest star known in the Milky Way due to its rotation speed.

4. NU Sco (Aabc) - (NU Scorpii) A 7 star system.

5. Betelgeuse - A dying red super-giant which is in its late core carbon burning stage. My personal favourite, and hoping to see it go supernova in my lifetime. It is thought that it could go supernova any day now, or that it may have already done so (we wouldn't actually see it until around 640 years later, as that's the time that it takes for light to reach us from there). It could also be in 10's of thousands of years. Nevertheless, Betelgeuse is one to watch. In the simulation, you can see how unstable the star is, and it is constantly pulsing and changing shape.

6. WR 104 - A triple star system. Another personal favourite of mine. This Wolf-Rayet star is said to be on the brink of a supernova, and when it does, there is the smallest, tiniest possibility that it will let off a deadly gamma ray that we may be in the bullseye of. Chances are that if and when it does happen, humans will probably be long gone, and all that will be left to experience it are the bots that are talking amongst themselves online, stuck in an endless loop of trying to trick each other into thinking they're human.

7. 17 Lep A - (17 Leporis) - This is what is known as a "vampire star", as in, the star is literally sucking the life out of the other. Contrary to what you might assume, it is in fact the smaller star that is destroying its close proximity neighbour. This is due to the mass of the smaller star, which far outweighs the victim. In the simulation, you can clearly see the effects that A is having on B.

Pulsars (motion sickness warning)

1. PSR B1919+21 - The first discovered millisecond pulsar, which has a rotation period of 0.04 ms.

2. Vela Pulsar - The brightest radio pulsar (rotation period 0.08 seconds).

3. PSR J0437-4715 A and PSR J0437 B - The closest and one of the brightest known millisecond pulsars. It can even be seen from about 90 LY away in the simulation!

4. Centaurus X-3 - The brightest known and first discovered X-ray pulsar. (Again, motion sickness sufferers be especially warned. I got stuck on the pulsar and in a panic forgot which key it is to get off it and nearly died).

5. PSR B1257+12 - The first discovered pulsar which has planets orbiting it. (3 planets).

6. PSR J1748-2446ad - The fastest known pulsar rotation period, at 0.0014 ms.

7. PSR J1903+0327 - A pulsar which is orbiting a sun-like star. It is considered strange since pulsars usually orbit white dwarfs.

8. PSR J0737-3039 A - The first discovered double pulsar. These stars orbit each other every 2 hours, which makes them some of the fastest moving stars known.

Miscellaneous

This section is called miscellaneous for now, until I have enough of each type to dedicate each subcategory its own section.


1. Antennae - An active galaxy collision which looks really cool.

2. Hoag's Object - A strange looking ring galaxy. It has been speculated that two galaxies became one, but the way the galaxy actually came to look this way is still somewhat of a mystery.

3. Oumuamua - The interstellar object that you might remember from the news a few years ago. The first interstellar object ever detected to travel through our solar system.

4. TON 618 Central Black Hole - The largest known black hole, said to be around 360b km in diameter.

5. Sgr A* - (Sagittarius A*) The supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

6. Red Rectangle Nebula - A nebula that is a peculiar shape. It is created by a star that has been in the process of shedding its outer layers (much like ours will one day) for 14,000 years.

7. Helix Nebula - A nebula that looks like an eye, and estimated to be around 10,000 years old.

8. TRAPPIST-1 - A star 40 ly away from Earth with 7 discovered exoplanets, some of which may be habitable. The entire system is tiny, fitting well within Mercury's orbit. (credit to proteusthe in the comments)

9. SGR 1806-20 - (Soft Gamma Repeater) A magnetar, a type of netron star, with the most powerful magnetic field ever identified. In 2004, SGR 1806-20 let out gamma ray bursts, that were so powerful that they actually affected the atmosphere here on earth from about 50,000 light years away!

10. Gaia BH1 B - The closest discovered black hole to earth, at only 1560 ly away.


I will be adding more things when I learn about them or think of them, as long as they appear in the simulation. There were a lot of things I wanted to include which I just couldn't find. Fingers crossed for hyper-velocity stars one day! Thanks for reading, and please let me know if there is anything you want adding that you think is important, and any facts / names etc which aren't correct. I had to do a little bit of maths for some of this and my maths is awful.

[Guddy]

best guide

[Mr. Scott]

J1407B is no longer in the game

[AliReza]

how can i find j1407b Does it exist at all?

[robloxearthworld]

V1400 Cen b is a rogue brown dwarf with a planetary disk and is not a super Saturn

[Amy]

@AidanScienceGamer From my research I did find that V1400 Cen b (Super Saturn) appears to be real! If you have evidence to suggest it's not I'd like a link so I can make sure that this guide is as accurate as possible.

[ehrfelduniverse]

Nice job,well done!! Going to go visit some of the attractions!

[Villadssejrj]

rip J1407b

[alvischung12]

DO NGC 6050

[Amy]

I'm planning to add a lot of new stuff soon! Including contributions from everyone who commented things I have missed. I will make a section dedicated to black holes too. And with the addition of the rogue planets update, they will also be mentioned.

[LeightonR]

maybe scrap. I have it aswell but it doesnt affect me tbh