2 Questions

sure ill helpXD.

1.) Artifact research is real simple. Look at one of your planets logistics tab and youll see "search planet" as a buying option. By searching each of your planets you have the possible chance of finding an artifact. Once you do you can research it and get some nifty benefits.

2.) Travel between stars happens only from wormholes. There stable nodes of space that your fleets can travel from one system to the next. You defenitily want to protect these areas (though you cant build turrets and what not there). Placing a fleet in that area is highly advised once you take over your entire system.

A couple of corrections...

1) Once you find an artifact using the 'explore planet' upgrade, it becomes active. You don't have to research it. It automatically grants you a passive benefit.

2) Travel between starts only occurs between stars. If someone uses a long range jump, they'll land at the star in the system they're jumping to. Wormholes are completely separate from this and each wormhole only goes to one destination.

Ships jump from star to star exactly like they do planet to planet via phase lanes. You can pretend there is a phase lane connecting all stars to each other if you like, they're just not visible. In other words, if the star you are jumping to is "up" from the star you are at, your ships must move the "top" of the star gravity well before jumping, just like if they were jumping to a planet in that direction. Wormholes go between two spots in the star system itself. Wormhole to wormhole. No star jumping involved. Two different techs as well. "Long range jumps" is the one that lets you jump star to star.

Thanks for the star to star help.

As for artifacts - I've fully explored every planet in a multi-system map and found 8/9 artifacts and a whole plethora of passive benefits.
No, I'm talking about after the game is finished, on the game statistics screen (you know, with charts of money, fleets, capital ships, etc. On the "empire" tab, there is a heading labeled "artifact research" thats obviously quite different to the "planet exploration upgrades" chart on the "planets" tab. I have yet to get a single point in this. Is is obsolete? Or have I just missed a rather well hidden part of the game?

It's goal is to just show you, where you can easily see it, exactly what artifacts you have which are working currently.
It's easier than looking at each individual planet, right?

Nooo! No-one understands my plight!
Its nothing in game! Surely you've either won/lost(/other?) a game in sins before? Have you trawled the charts showing game data such as fleet sizes and credits earned?
Under the "empire" screen, where you have things such as culture percentage, theres something that says "artifact research" and after numerous games, I have yet to see anyone, human or otherwise, get a single point in it, and I was wondering what it was.

I've wondered that myself. I can't say for sure whether I've ever seen a point scored in it or not, but it certainly does not seem to have any correlation to the exploration upgrade to planets.

The 'Artifact Research' thing is an erroneous chart left over from the Beta. It has absolutely no current point - ignore it.

You essentially 'research' your artifacts now via planetary exploration instead of having to research them separately once discovered.

I presume removing said chart is low priority for IC. Which makes sense, as they have been extremely busy pushing out updates at a scale that is as 'unrivaled' as the scale of the game itself   

I assumed it would be something like that. I don't care that it hasn;t been removed, I just wanted to know whether it existed.

Cool, glad I could help you out.