Betelgeuse in fiction

Betelgeuse imaged in ultraviolet light by the Hubble Space Telescope and subsequently enhanced by NASA.

Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis) is a red supergiant star in the constellation Orion that regularly appears or is referenced in science fiction:

Literature

• Ford Prefect, a character in Douglas Adams's series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, hails from "a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse" as does his "semi-cousin" with whom he "shares three of the same mothers", Zaphod Beeblebrox. Various references to residents and places on the planets orbiting Betelgeuse (e.g. Zaphod's 'favourite mother' Mrs. Alice Beeblebrox, resident of 10⁸ Astral Crescent, Zoovroozlechester, Betelgeuse V) are made throughout most versions of the Guide saga.

• In August Derleth's take on H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, Betelgeuse is the home of the 'benign' Elder Gods.

• Philip K. Dick references Betelgeuse in several novels and short stories. Occasionally the name of the star is punned upon and the characters are portrayed as large beetles, such as in "Shell Game" and "Tony and the Beetles."

• In Calculating God, a science-fiction novel by Robert J. Sawyer, Betelgeuse becomes a supernova, threatening all life within several hundred light-years. The novel assumes that the gamma ray flux from the supernova is many times that currently estimated by astronomers.

• In Pierre Boulle's novel Planet of the Apes, Soror, the planet upon which the majority of the story takes place, orbits Betelgeuse.

• In the science fiction series Perry Rhodan book 40 (English sequence number) Red Eye of Betelgeuse, and book 41 The Earth Dies, both by Clark Dalton, Perry Rhodan plays a ruse to convince his enemies that they have discovered the secret location of Earth around the third planet of Betelgeuse, which is then promptly destroyed making the Betelgeuse system a binary star, but giving the real Earth some breathing time.

• In the story "Transit of Betelgeuse" by Robert Chase, published in the magazine Analog Science Fiction and Fact in May 1990, a rescue in space is attempted in the last few hours before the supernova explosion of Betelguese begins with a blast of neutrinos. In the sequel, "Endeavor", in Analog of July/August 2005, the rescue has more or less succeeded, but the ship Endeavor has to escape the supernova remnant expanding at 1% the speed of light behind it, while coping with other problems.

• In Frank Herbert's Dune universe, there is a planetary system named Bela Tegeuse, a probable corruption of Betelgeuse.

• In Kurt Vonnegut's 1959 novel Sirens of Titan, Winston Niles Rumfoord and his dog Kazak exist as a "wave phenomenon", which begins in the sun and ends in Betelgeuse.

• In Jeffrey Carver's book From a Changeling Star, Betelgeuse is an actual living entity that calls itself "Bright"; it is on the verge of becoming a supernova in the novel.

• Beetlejuice's name is a reference to Betelgeuse, and is spelled Betelgeuse on his tombstone.

• Tékumel, books and games by M. A. R. Barker. Betelgeuse is the planetary system from which originate the nonhuman species called the Urunén, or Cold-Dwellers.

• In Gérard Klein's book Le Gambit des Étoiles (1958; transl. as Starmasters' Gambit, 1973), human galaxy is run by the central government of Betelgeuse. Jerg Algan returns to unnamed planet orbiting Betelgeuse to deliver the message of the masters to the immortal members of the government of human galaxy.

• In Isaac Asimov's "The Robots of Dawn", Betelgeuse is provided to Elijah Baley as a reference point from which he might locate the planet Aurora, to which he is headed, while viewing a three-dimensional map of the galaxy.

Film and television

• Blade Runner (1982), film. Betelgeuse is the right shoulder, and Bellatrix is the left shoulder of the constellation Orion. In his “Tears in the rain” soliloquy, the dying replicant Roy Batty tells of “attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion." See also Gamma Orionis (Bellatrix).
• Space Battleship Yamato: In episode 12 of the series, the Yamato is lured into a trap near Alpha Orionis and enters the star's corona during its escape.
• In the 1963 novel "Planet of the Apes" by Pierre Boulle, the eponymous planet orbits Betelgeuse. However, this was not true of the 1968 film version in which the planet of the apes turns out to be Earth in the far future.

Comics and animation

The pink arrow at the star on left labeled α indicates Betelgeuse in Orion

• Tharg the Mighty, the (fictional) editor of the British comic anthology 2000AD since 1977, hails from Betelgeuse, along with his sister Marg. A rudimentary Betelgeusian vocabulary has been developed in the comic.
• Bételgeuse is a comic series by Léo, which is set on a planet circling Betelgeuse.
• In the world of Bucky O'Hare, Betelgeuse is the home to muscular orange-furred baboons.
• Betelgeuse is also the name of the second 5 album series of comics by LEO (the first being Aldebaran and the last Antares), where the action takes place on planets orbiting these systems.

Games

• In the computer game Star Control 2, Betelgeuse is also the star around which the second homeworld of the Syreen orbits.
• In Battletech, Betelgeuse is home to Aldis Industries and Firmir Weaponry, military defence industries of the Capellan Confederation.
• In the Frontier-series (composed of the games Frontier: Elite II and Frontier: First Encounters), Betelgeuse is an uninhabited system hundreds of light-years away from any settled system.
• In the computer game Star Trek: Bridge Commander, the Betelgeuse system appears as custom downloadable content.

External links

• Betelgeuse at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)