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Asteroids have appeared in fiction since the 1800s, the first one—Ceres—having been discovered in 1801.

Remnants of a planet

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. This was originally proposed by German astronomer Heinrich Olbers—who discovered the asteroids Pallas and Vesta in 1802 and 1807, respectively—and the planet became known as Phaëton to astronomers; in science fiction, it is often called "Bodia" after Johann Elert Bode.

An early science fiction work that incorporated this notion was Robert Cromie's 1895 novel The Crack of Doom, where the release of energy stored in atomic nuclei a few thousand years prior is the culprit. Interplanetary warfare with Mars causes the destruction of Bodia—and indirectly, the end of civilization on Mars—in Harl Vincent's 1930 short story "Before the Asteroids". In Leslie F. Stone's 1934 short story "The Rape of the Solar System", war with Mars over the colonization of then-uninhabited Earthresulted both in the partial destruction of Bodia, thus creating the asteroids, and the displacement of the largest fragment to a much wider orbit to create Pluto. Several works of the 1950s reused the idea to warn of the dangers of nuclear weapons.

Paul Preuss's 1985 short story "Small Bodies", where fossils are found on an asteroid, is a late example of the theme; it has otherwise largely been relegated to deliberately retro works such as the 1989 tabletop role-playing game Space: 1889. A variation on the theme appears in Clifford D. Simak's 1973 short story "Construction Shack", where the asteroids are leftover material originally intended for the construction of a fifth planet.

Navigational hazard

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 Isaac Asimov'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.

Resource extraction

A concept of more enduring popularity is that of asteroid mining, featured in early works such as Simak's 1932 short story "The Asteroid of Gold"—where asteroids were often the setting of a space version of the Klondike or California gold rush—as well as more modern works like Ben Bova's 2001 novel The Precipice (part of his Grand Tour series).

Places to live

Another use humans have found for asteroids in fiction is turning them into space stations or habitats, often by hollowing them out, as in Robert A. Heinlein's 1939 short story "Misfit".

Impact events

Impact events or threats thereof are depicted in numerous works such as Arthur C. Clarke's 1993 novel The Hammer of God, and in the 1985 novel Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle they are outright weaponized.

See also

• Comets in fiction

References

1. ^ Stableford, Brian; Langford, David (2023). "Asteroids". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2023-10-06.
2. ^ Stableford, Brian (2006). "Asteroid". Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 40–41. ISBN 978-0-415-97460-8.
3. ^ Westfahl, Gary (2021). "Asteroids". Science Fiction Literature through History: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 139–141. ISBN 978-1-4408-6617-3.
4. Hampton, Steven (Summer 2000). Lee, Tony (ed.). "Momentos of Creation: Asteroids & Comets in SF". The Planets Project: A Science Fictional Tour of the Solar System. The Zone. No. 9. pp. 6–7. ISSN 1351-5217.
5. Caryad; Römer, Thomas; Zingsem, Vera (2014). "Steine vom Himmel – und eine Lücke im Sonnensystem" [Rocks from the Sky – and a Gap in the Solar System]. Wanderer am Himmel: Die Welt der Planeten in Astronomie und Mythologie [Wanderers in the Sky: The World of the Planets in Astronomy and Mythology] (in German). Springer-Verlag. pp. 162–164. ISBN 978-3-642-55343-1.
6. Bleiler, Everett Franklin; Bleiler, Richard (1998). "The Science-Fiction Solar System". Science-fiction: The Gernsback Years : a Complete Coverage of the Genre Magazines ... from 1926 Through 1936. Kent State University Press. p. 539. ISBN 978-0-87338-604-3.
7. Clute, John (2022). "Cromie, Robert". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2024-02-18.
8. Bleiler, Everett Franklin; Bleiler, Richard (1998). "Vincent, Harl". Science-fiction: The Gernsback Years : a Complete Coverage of the Genre Magazines ... from 1926 Through 1936. Kent State University Press. pp. 455–456. ISBN 978-0-87338-604-3.
9. Bleiler, Everett Franklin; Bleiler, Richard (1998). "Stone, Leslie F.". Science-fiction: The Gernsback Years : a Complete Coverage of the Genre Magazines ... from 1926 Through 1936. Kent State University Press. p. 417. ISBN 978-0-87338-604-3.
10. ^ Gillett, Stephen L. (2005). "Comets and Asteroids". In Westfahl, Gary (ed.). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 146–148. ISBN 978-0-313-32951-7.
11. Fraknoi, Andrew (January 2024). "Science Fiction Stories with Good Astronomy & Physics: A Topical Index" (PDF). Astronomical Society of the Pacific (7.3 ed.). pp. 2, 7–8. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-02-10. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
12. Caryad; Römer, Thomas; Zingsem, Vera (2014). "Science vs. Fiction: der ganz andere Asteroidengürtel aus Roman und Film" [Science vs. Fiction: The Entirely Different Asteroid Belt from Novel and Film]. Wanderer am Himmel: Die Welt der Planeten in Astronomie und Mythologie [Wanderers in the Sky: The World of the Planets in Astronomy and Mythology] (in German). Springer-Verlag. pp. 170–172. ISBN 978-3-642-55343-1.

Further reading

• Hartwell, William T. (2007). "The Sky on the Ground: Celestial Objects and Events in Archaeology and Popular Culture". In Bobrowsky, Peter T.; Rickman, Hans (eds.). Comet/Asteroid Impacts and Human Society: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. pp. 71–87. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-32711-0_3. ISBN 978-3-540-32709-7.

v t e Astronomical locations in fiction
Solar System	Planets Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Fictional planets Other bodies Sun Moon list Asteroids Comets Pluto
Other	Extrasolar planets Stars Black holes Neutron stars Supernovae

• Fiction about asteroids
• Fiction about the Solar System