Space is big. Really big. There's all sorts of wonders and terrors that are hidden in vast expanse of space. So let's go find them! For more explorer minded (or loot gobliny types) you can deep scan empty sectors and find that empty sectors aren't so empty. What could they hide? Loot? Knowledge? Pirates? Space Creatures? There are well over 30 unique discoveries in the standard game, but all will take precious turns to uncover. Turns although they seem like an infinite pool, are just as precious a commodity, spend too many turns hyper-focused on an activity and you may miss out on an important event elsewhere or a mission might expire, or spend too much time scanning down every discovery and a pirate might interrupt your exploration. Will the time you spend scanning them down be worth it?
or in your travels, your sensors might pick up an anomaly trace that you can scan and discover a warp route to an undiscovered sector.
Spending the time to uncover a route to the anomalous sector will lead you into a one-time adventure narrative with lucrative loot and risks that can be affected by your ship type, chosen career path, what cargo and upgrades you have, or any number of factors that can ensure your victory or demise!
This is just one facet of exploration in the game, as there are still even more gameplay mechanics around exploration and discovery to be revealed in future devlogs!