Asteroids in fiction

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Asteroids are a staple of science fiction stories. A theory to explain the existence of the asteroid belt that was popular in the 1800s was that it consists of the remnants of a planet predicted by the Titius–Bode law to exist between Mars and Jupiter that had somehow been destroyed, and this was reflected in early science fiction works such as Robert Cromie's 1895 novel ; several works of the 1950s reused this idea to warn of the dangers of nuclear weapons.[1][2][3] Early works also tended to depict the asteroid belt as a region that must be navigated carefully lest one's spaceship should collide with one of the asteroids, one example being Arthur C. Clarke's 1939 short story "Marooned off Vesta"; later works mostly recognize that the individual asteroids are very far apart and accordingly pose little danger to spacecraft, the Star Wars films being an exception to this general rule.[1][2][4]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). "Asteroids". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Stableford, Brian M. (2006). "Asteroid". Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 40–41. ISBN 978-0-415-97460-8.
  3. ^ Westfahl, Gary (2021-07-19). "Asteroids". Science Fiction Literature through History: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. pp. 139–141. ISBN 978-1-4408-6617-3.
  4. ^ Gillett, Stephen L. (2005). Westfahl, Gary (ed.). Comets and Asteroids. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 146–148. ISBN 978-0-313-32951-7.
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