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List of planets in science fiction

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The portrayal of other planets in science fiction is a recurring theme in science fiction.

During the first decades of science fiction, Mars was the most common planet and the most romanticized of our solar system whose surface conditions seemed closest to being amenable to life. Percival Lowell's idea about Martian canals was taken at face value then. Currently Mars is depicted mainly as a target of terraforming. See Mars in fiction for more details on the red planet's numerous roles.

During the early-to-mid 20th century, Venus was also a popular subject. Venus is very similar to Earth in its size and surface gravity, and its surface is hidden by a thick cloud layer. Venus was usually depicted as a warm, wet, jungle- and marsh-covered world where life was plentiful, with often thinly-veiled allegories of the European colonization of Africa. Venus is in fact an inhospitable world—the clouds are sulfuric acid, the atmosphere is 90 times thicker than Earth's, and the surface temperature could melt lead. See Venus in fiction for more details and particular works.

Authors have created thousands of fictional planets. Most of them are nearly indistinguishable from Earth, which is why Brian M. Stableford calls them "Earth-Clones". In these, differences with Earth life are mostly social (like Barrayar in the science fiction of Lois McMaster Bujold). More physically unusual planets have been depicted in hard science fiction books. For the Star Trek universe, a detailed planetary classification system has been devised.

Some Fantasy Worlds are also depicted as alien planets.

Planet Lists

For planets from specific milieux, use the following lists and categories:

Alphabetical List

A

B

C

D

  • Dagobah—Star Wars (swamp, Yoda's hideout)
  • Dayan or Dyan—Israeli-ethnic world in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History.
  • Darkover—Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series (medieval culture and psi powers)
  • Daxam—Native of Daxam are not unlike those of Krypton, they too circle a red gas giant, one notable inhabitant is Lar Gand a.k.a. Mon-El(Pre-Crisis) and Valor(Post-Crisis)who is a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the far distant future. Lar has the same powers as Superman under the yellow sun, and the element lead is deadly to him, as Kryptonite is deadly to Superman. DC Universe.
  • Death Worlds in Warhammer 40,000, including Baal(highly radioactive), Catachan(extremely hostile jungle), And Fenris(Arctic)
  • Dhrawn—Hal Clement's Star Light (high gravity)
  • The Discworld—not quite a planet, as it's flat and supported by giant elephants
  • Dorsai — Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai series (soldier culture)
  • Dosadi—- The setting for Frank Herbert's novel The Dosadi Experiment.
  • Deemi—World in David Brin's Uplift Universe leased to humans on the condition that they run the Galactic prison. Bathed in UV radiation. Most of biosphere is aquatic.
  • Dragon World—the Earth from the anime Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dr. Slump, and Neko Majin Z.
  • Dragon's Egg—Robert Forward (life on neutron star)
  • Dryad—Is a planet inhabited by a race of sentinent silicone creatures that resemble the shape of humans. Dryad is the home world of Blok a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the far distant future. DC Universe.

E

F

G

H

I

J

  • Jean—colony planet in the Freefall comic
  • Jijo—Planet in Galaxy #4 where Humans and other sophont refugees have illegally hidden, in the case of the G'kek and the Humans to avoid extermination, potential for humanity, certain for G'kek.
  • Jinx—Larry Niven's Known Space universe (high gravity and extreme vertical scale)*Jobis—A Kiint world with three artificial moons from Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy.
  • Jophekka—In David Brin's Uplift Universe, the homeworld of the Jophur, sapient and ambitious sap ring stacks.
  • Jurai—The seat of the powerful Juraian Empire in the anime Tenchi Muyo.

K

L

M

N

  • Nacre—Piers Anthony's Omnivore
  • Namek and New Namek—Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball (temperate land where trees are scarce, but water and grass abondant)
  • Narn—homeworld of the Narn in the Babylon 5 universe
  • New Chicago—World in revolt from the 2nd Empire of Man at the beginning of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's The Mote in God's Eye
  • New Mecca—The Chronicles of Riddick movie
  • New Terra—In the computer game Outpost_2, New Terra is the world chosen by humanity as it's last hope for survival, colonized by the last survivors of Earth in starship Conestoga.
  • Nihil, Latin word for 'nothing', additional planet of Earth's solar system in the novel Beyond the Spectrum. Due to a flaw in space, the planet is invisible except at close range, although it can see most of the other planets. The inhabitants attempt to conquer Earth during the 30th century.
  • Norfolk—British-ethnic world in Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy. Known for Norfolk Tears, a highly-prized spirit distilled from the secretions of a flower native to the world and dependent on the star systems binary nature.
  • Nova Kong—Capital world of the Kingdom of Kulu in Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy. Ruled by the Saldana family.
  • Nuliajuk—Inuit/Eskimo-ethnic world of Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History.
  • Nyvan—First planet colonized by humanity in Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy. Considered backwards and stunted due to its not being unified into one nation.

O

P

Q

  • Q-13—where Spaceman Spiff (Calvin) faces despicable scum beings with his mertilizer beam and mordo blasters
  • Qar'To—a planet established in the first season of War of the Worlds to be in the same system as that of the invading aliens (Mor-Tax) and has sent a synth to assassinate the Advocacy
  • Qo'noS/Kronos—Klingon homeworld in the Star Trek universe
  • Qom-Riyadh — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (Moslem)

R

S

T

  • Tagora—Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe
  • Talark — Vandread (male-only society)
  • Tallon IV—Metroid Prime. All life on planet was horribly mutated following the crash of a toxic asteroid.
  • Tanith—Homeworld of the Gaunt's Ghosts regiment the Tanith First and Only. Several novels chronicling the regiment are written by Dan Abnett and are set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
  • Tanith—A jungle planet known for the drug borloi in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History.
  • Tanith—In David Brin's Uplift trilogies Tanith is the location of the nearest full Galactic Library branch near Terra.

Tallon IV - planet formerly inhabited by Chozo in Metroid Prime video game.

U

V

  • Planet Vegeta and New Vegeta—Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
  • Venom—Home of the evil Dr. Andross in the Star Fox video game series. Largest and closest orbiting planet of the Lylat System, setting of the games in Nintendo's StarFox series, bearing an extremely toxic atmosphere and therefore a highly desolate surface. In some versions of the backstory, Venom was previously called Edena because it was supposedly covered almost entirely with forest, possibly evergreen, before Andross was exiled there, suggesting it may have also been a prison planet.
  • Vladislava—Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe (extremely turbulent atmosphere)
  • Vulcan—Star Trek

W

  • Wallach IX—in Dune, the home of the Bene Gesserit.
  • We Made It—Planet in Larry Niven's Known Space universe marked by intense winds. Inhabitants called Crashlanders, such as Beowulf Schaeffer from Neutron Star.
  • Wegthor is a moon that once encircled the planet Krypton, Superman's home world.
  • Well World—Jack L. Chalker's Well of Souls series (surface divided in thousands of different ecosystems, each one with a different sentient race)
  • World of Tiers—Philip José Farmer's book series of the same name (world-sized stepped pyramid with a different environment on each step)
  • Wormwood, from Rifts

X

  • "X" (planet) source of Alludium Phosdex, the shaving cream atom, in Duck Dodgers
  • X-13—where Spaceman Spiff (Calvin) is captured and brought before the Zorg despot
  • Xenon—Roger Wilco's home world in the Space Quest computer game series.
  • Xindus — Star Trek: Enterprise (six distinct sentient species)

Y

Z

  • Z'ha'dum—Home of the Shadows in Babylon 5
  • Zahir—Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent series (hollow planet)
  • Zanshaa—Walter Jon Williams's Dread Empire's Fall (Shaa Imperial Capital)
  • Zark, where Spaceman Spiff (Calvin) has several adventures escaping sinister aliens
  • Zartron-9—home of the awful bug beings who blast Spaceman Spiff while he reboots his saucer's computer and tries to recalibrate his weapons
  • Zog—where Spaceman Spiff makes a (very rare) perfect 3 point landing
  • Zok—where Spaceman Spiff is marooned
  • Zokk—where Spaceman Spiff bounds across the landscape given the low gravity
  • Zorg—where Spaceman Spiff sets his gun on deep-fat fry to blast aliens
  • Zebes-Planet in Nintendo's Metroid universe
  • Zeelich, a planet in Little Big Adventure 2. It is covered by a thick layer of gas clouds and beneath lies a sea of lava. Vegetation and civilisation is recurrent only on mountains above the cloud layer.
  • Zeid in C. C. Ekeke's Star Brigade: First Renaissance (gas giant with habitable atmosphere pockets)
  • Zonama Sekot living world from the Star Wars expanded universe.
  • Zoness—A planet that once was nearly all tropical in its climate, and home to many island resorts in StarFox's Lylat System, the whole planet was turned into a toxic waste dump by the forces of Andross according to the storyline of StarFox 64, turning its once beautiful oceans into seas of corrosive poison and its atmosphere into a caustic cloud of deadly vapors.
  • Zyrgon, an icebound planet in "Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left"

In addition, some writers, scientists and artists have speculated about artificial worlds or planet-equivalents; see Larry Niven's Ringworld, Freeman Dyson's Dyson sphere or Christian Waldvogel's Globus Cassus.

Books

See also

See also

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