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Extrasolar planets in fiction

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For fictional planets that have stand-alone articles, see Planets in science fiction.

Stars outside of our Solar System and their planets have been featured as settings in works of fiction since at least the 1854 novel Star ou Psi de Cassiopée (English title: Star: Psi Cassiopeia) by C. I. Defontenay, which depicts aliens living in the planetary system around Psi Cassiopeiae. Most of these fictional stars and planets do not vary significantly from the Sun and Earth, respectively. Exceptions include anthropomorphized stars and planets with sentience, planets without stars, and circumbinary planets in multiple-star systems where the orbital mechanics can lead to exotic day–night or seasonal cycles. Besides fictional star systems, several real ones have also made appearances in fiction, with the nearest one—Alpha Centauri—receiving particular attention.

Types

Stars

See also: Black holes in fiction and Supernovae in fiction

For the most part, stars in fiction vary only in size and colour. Exceptions to this are rare and appear comparatively lately in the history of science fiction.[1] A toroidal star is featured in Donald Malcolm's 1964 short story "Beyond the Reach of Storms".[1][2] Sentient stars are depicted in Olaf Stapledon's 1937 novel Star Maker among others.[1][3][4] A handful of works depict lifeforms on or even inside of stars, such as the 1980 novel Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward and the 1993 novel Flux by Stephen Baxter, respectively; in both of these stories, the stars in question are neutron stars.[3][5] Some stories including Bob Shaw's 1975 novel Orbitsville depict stars being enclosed by Dyson spheres.[3]

Planets

Most extrasolar planets in fiction are similar to Earth, though there are several exceptions.[6]

An early example of an entirely different kind of planet is found in Hal Clement's 1953 novel Mission of Gravity, where the planet Mesklin's rapid rotation causes it to be shaped roughly like a flat disk and gravity is consequently about 200 times weaker at the equator than it is at the poles.[6][7][8] Another disk-shaped planet is the Discworld of Terry Pratchett's 1983–2015 book series of that name, a flat world which is carried on the backs of elephants that are in turn carried on the back of a turtle.[6][9]

Circumbinary planets, sometimes nicknamed "Tatooine worlds" after the Star Wars planet,[10] have attracted attention from science fiction writers in terms of what kind of life would exist on planets orbiting more than one sun.[11] Isaac Asimov's 1941 short story "Nightfall" portrays a planet in a multiple star system which is consequently in daylight from at least one of its six suns for millennia at a time.[5][12] Hal Clement's 1957 novel Cycle of Fire depicts a planet in circumbinary orbit where the seasons last for decades and different species dominate the hot and cold parts of the year,[6][11][13] and Brian Aldiss' 1982–1985 Helliconia trilogy is set on a planet in a binary star system where the orbital mechanics lead to century-long seasons.[6][13][14] The 1985 anthology Medea: Harlan's World is a collaborative effort between Harlan Ellison and several other science fiction writers consisting of several stories set on the same circumbinary planet.[6][11]

Other types of planets in fiction include starless ones as in the 1934 short story "The Sunless World" by Neil R. Jones and the 1977 novel Dying of the Light by George R. R. Martin,[11][15] sentient ones as in the 1961 novel Solaris by Stanisław Lem and its 1972 and 2002 film adaptations,[4][6][16] and double planets as in the 1982 novel Rocheworld by Robert L. Forward.[11][17][18] Sentient planets are relatively rarely portrayed in fiction when compared to sentient stars, but the related concept of an entire planetary ecosphere as a single organism—known as the Gaia hypothesis—is not uncommon; one such example is found in Isaac Asimov's 1982 novel Foundation's Edge.[4][19] Science fiction writers sometimes use exobiology as a form of worldbuilding, describing alien ecosystems and how humans do or do not fit into them; the desert planet Arrakis in Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune is a particularly detailed example thereof.[6][20]

Planetary systems of real stars

Alpha Centauri (Rigil Kentaurus/Toliman)

The Alpha Centauri system is the closest star system to Earth—with Proxima Centauri being the closest of the system's stars—which has given it a special position in science fiction literature. Several stories of the first interstellar journeys have featured it as the intended destination. Among the earliest examples are the 1931 short story "Across the Void" by Leslie F. Stone and the 1935 short story "Proxima Centauri" by Murray Leinster.[1][21] The spacecraft in the latter reaches its destination in less than a decade but has the capacity to function as a generation starship if needed; the use of an actual generation starship headed for the system was later depicted in the 1944 novel Far Centaurus by A. E. van Vogt,[22][23] and the 1997 novel Alpha Centauri by William Barton and Michael Capobianco portrays such a mission being endangered by terrorists.[1][24]

Altair (Alpha Aquilae)

The 1956 film Forbidden Planet, a science-fiction retelling of William Shakespeare's 1611 play The Tempest, is set on the fourth planet orbiting Altair.[25][26]

Arcturus (Alpha Boötis)

The Arcturus system is the setting of the 1920 novel A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay, wherein the protagonist voyages from Earth to the planet Tormance and encounters various alien lifeforms.[27][28]

Psi Cassiopeiae

Psi Cassiopeiae made one of the earliest appearances as a setting in a work of fiction of any star system in the 1854 novel Star ou Psi de Cassiopée (English title: Star: Psi Cassiopeia) by C. I. Defontenay.[1][2][29] The novel depicts immortal aliens inhabiting the planets orbiting the binary star.[29][30][11]

Sirius (Alpha Canis Majoris)

A few stories have portrayed aliens from Sirius visiting Earth for various reasons. The 1752 short story "Micromégas" by Voltaire is a satire wherein a visitor from Sirius and another from Saturn make some observations about humanity. The 1980 novel The Sirian Experiments by Doris Lessing—part three of her 1979–1983 five-part Canopus in Argos series—portrays experiments conducted on humans by Sirians.[31][32][33]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Stableford, Brian M. (2006). "Star". Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 500–502. ISBN 978-0-415-97460-8.
  2. ^ a b Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Stars". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-11-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ a b c Westfahl, Gary (2021-07-19). "Stars". Science Fiction Literature through History: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. p. 603. ISBN 978-1-4408-6617-3.
  4. ^ a b c Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Living Worlds". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-12-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ a b McKinney, Richard L. (2005). "Stars". In Westfahl, Gary (ed.). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 751–753. ISBN 978-0-313-32952-4.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Westfahl, Gary (2021-07-19). "Alien Worlds". Science Fiction Literature through History: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. pp. 107–108. ISBN 978-1-4408-6617-3.
  7. ^ Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Clement, Hal". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-12-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ Stableford, Brian M. (2006). "Clement, Hal". Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 90–91. ISBN 978-0-415-97460-8.
  9. ^ Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Discworld [series]". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-11-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ Kaufman, Mark (2020-01-15). "Tatooine Worlds". Astrobiology at NASA: Life in the Universe. Retrieved 2021-12-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ a b c d e f Stableford, Brian M. (2006). "Planet". Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 374–376. ISBN 978-0-415-97460-8.
  12. ^ Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Asimov, Isaac". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-11-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ^ a b Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Great Year". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-11-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. ^ Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Aldiss, Brian W". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-11-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  15. ^ Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Martin, George R R". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-12-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ^ Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Lem, Stanisław". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-12-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Forward, Robert L". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-12-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. ^ Stableford, Brian M. (2006). "Forward, Robert L". Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 191–192. ISBN 978-0-415-97460-8.
  19. ^ Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Gaia". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-12-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. ^ Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Life on Other Worlds". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-12-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. ^ Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Stone, Leslie F". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-12-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  22. ^ Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Generation Starships". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-12-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  23. ^ Schaaf, Fred (2008). The Brightest Stars: Discovering the Universe through the Sky's Most Brilliant Stars. Wiley. pp. 122–123. ISBN 978-0-471-70410-2. The first great science-fiction story in which Alpha Centauri played a major role may have been a 1944 tale by A. E. van Vogt. I read it in a much later anthology when I was a kid. The title of the tale—including the sound of that title—was what really filled me with admiration and has stuck with me ever since: "Far Centaurus." Although the name Proxima Centauri basically means "near Centaurus," the title of the story is appropriate because the tale tells of a first spaceship journey that would take many generations to complete—"'Tis for far Centaurus we sail!"
  24. ^ Stableford, Brian M. (2004). "Barton, William R.". Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Literature. Scarecrow Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-8108-4938-9. Alpha Centauri (1997), in which terrorists plague the colony ship which is humankind's last hope
  25. ^ Schaaf, Fred (2008). The Brightest Stars: Discovering the Universe through the Sky's Most Brilliant Stars. Wiley. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-471-70410-2. Imagined planets circling Altair have been the setting for a number of well-known science-fiction stories. None is as famous as the 1950s movie classic Forbidden Planet, with its theme based on Shakespeare's The Tempest and its iconic robot.
  26. ^ Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Forbidden Planet". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-12-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  27. ^ Schaaf, Fred (2008). The Brightest Stars: Discovering the Universe through the Sky's Most Brilliant Stars. Wiley. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-471-70410-2. Among various twentieth- and twenty-first-century science-fiction stories, UFO cults, and video games that mention Arcturus, perhaps the most notable is David Lindsay's 1920 novel A Voyage to Arcturus. This often heavy-handed and woodenly written work is also sometimes stunningly original—and it is ostensibly set on a planet circling Arcturus. The light of Arcturus in the novel is regarded as somber or ominous in keeping with the tone of the story, which I (but not all readers of the novel) interpret to be nothing less than the agonizing account of a soul's descent into hell.
  28. ^ Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Lindsay, David". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-12-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  29. ^ a b Marcovitz, Hal (2011). "Chapter One: The Aliens Arrive". Aliens in Pop Culture. Capstone. pp. 11–12. ISBN 978-1-60152-365-5. In 1854 French writer Charlemagne-Ischir Defontenay published one of the first novels about space travel that was not written in a satirical tone. In the book titled Star, Defontenay described an alien civilization on a planet he named Psi Cassiopeia.
  30. ^ Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Defontenay, C I". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-11-22. Star, ou Ψ de Cassiopée: histoire merveilleuse de l'un des mondes de l'espace, nature singulière, coutumes, voyages, littérature starienne, poèmes et comédies traduits du starien (1854; trans P J Sokolowski as Star (Psi Cassiopeia) 1975 US, with intro by Pierre Versins) describes the discovery in the Himalayas of a box inside a meteorite, full of packets of information about life on several planets orbiting Psi Cassiopeia.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  31. ^ Schaaf, Fred (2008). The Brightest Stars: Discovering the Universe through the Sky's Most Brilliant Stars. Wiley. pp. 100–101. ISBN 978-0-471-70410-2. A profoundly different story is Voltaire's 1752 work "Micromegas." Featured characters are a being from a planet circling Sirius and his companion from Saturn. These two pay a visit to Earth, providing Voltaire with a vehicle for social commentary.
    [...]
    British author Doris Lessing (winner, at the age of almost 88, of the Nobel Prize for literature) produced a series of five books called Canopus in Argos: Archives, whose third volume is titled The Sirian Experiments. Published in 1980, The Sirian Experiments tells how agents of the empire of Sirius are allowed to try "evolutionary experiments" with humans in Earth's Southern Hemisphere. They are allowed by the agents of the more powerful empire of Canopus (the second brightest star), who conduct such experiments in Earth's Northern Hemisphere. The Canopeans call Earth "Shiskasta," a name which is said to imply abandonment and catastrophe, while what a literary critic of the work calls the "less perceptive" Sirians take a more hopeful (or naive?) view and call Earth "Rohanda, the Fair."
  32. ^ Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Voltaire". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-12-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  33. ^ Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Lessing, Doris". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2021-12-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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