Discovering the surroundings with probes is one thing. But it would be nice that after discovering planets, the game remembered the planets' and the players' names. Once you have discovered a planet you can only have these infos by getting back there with a ship.
So they can collapse stars into black holes, but have not yet discovered cartography?
And I would suggest a different color for players you are at peace with, embargoed or at war. That would make orientation on the map much easier.