Interesting ideas for space opera RP...

[watervole]

 I'm helping GM a role-playing space opera game.  The six players have various factions, all the way from rats who steal everything that's not nailed down (and have a fascinating culture to go with it), to an AI whose task it is to look after a race of humanoids who have all entered virtual reality pods long ago and may/may not still be alive.

 

A major part of the game is exploration and colonisation.

What I'm after is ideas/suggestions for things they can find when they explore.  

These can be anything and everything.  The idea is that they should give several turns of activity and possibly produce something of value at the end (with a few possible duds)

We've created a number of these related to the background plot of the past history of the star cluster, but it's a large cluster and there's room for plenty more.

I want things that they can explore/analyse/learn things from/be puzzled by/etc.

What can your collective space opera brains come up with?

PS.  There might still be space for another player, if anyone is interested.  It typically involves a fair bit of in-character chatter over Discord in between the turn deadline every other week.  The role-playing from some people is brilliant (and sometimes hilarious).  We're only one turn into the game, so easy to fit someone in in an unexplored area.