Fictional planets of the Solar System

The fictional portrayal of our Solar System has often included planets, moons, and other celestial objects which do not actually exist in reality. Some of these objects were, at one time, seriously considered as hypothetical planets which were either thought to have been observed, or were hypothesized in order to explain certain celestial phenomena. Often such objects continued to be used in literature long after the hypotheses upon which they were based had been abandoned.

Other non-existent Solar System objects used in fiction have been proposed or hypothesized by persons with no scientific standing, while yet others are purely fictional and were never intended as serious hypotheses about the structure of the Solar System.

Vulcan

Vulcan was a hypothetical planet supposed to revolve around the Sun inside the orbit of Mercury, invoked to explain certain irregularities in Mercury's orbit. The planet was proposed as a hypothesis in 1859, and abandoned not later than 1915.

The name "Vulcan" has been used for various other fictional planets, in and out of the Solar System, that do not correspond to the hypothetical planet Vulcan. The planet Vulcan in the Star Trek franchise, for instance, is specified as orbiting 40 Eridani A.

Counter-Earth

Main article: Counter-Earth

Counter-Earth was a hypothetical planet sharing an orbit with Earth, but on the opposite side of the Sun (and hence Earth and Counter-Earth always being invisible from each other). The idea of a counter-Earth has never been a serious scientific hypothesis in modern times.

Books

Comics

Television and radio

Film

Other

Phaëton

Phaëton is a name given to a supposed planet existing in the past between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, which no longer exists, having become the Solar System's asteroid belt. Proposed not long after the discovery of multiple asteroids at the beginning of the 19th century, the idea that the asteroids were fragments of a single planet was gradually abandoned over the course of the middle decades of the 20th century in favor of the conclusion that no planet had ever accreted in the region of the asteroid belt in the first place.

In fiction, various other names were given to the same or similar concepts.

Trans-Neptunian planets

"Persephone (planet)" redirects here. For the asteroid, see 399 Persephone. For the planet in the TV series "Firefly", see List of Firefly planets and moons.
This article is about fictional planets beyond Neptune. For historical speculation about hypothesized real planets, see Planets beyond Neptune.
This article is about fictional planets beyond Neptune created for various works of fiction. For discussion of the portrayal in fiction of real and fictional sub-planetary objects beyond Neptune, see Trans-Neptunian objects in fiction.
This article is about fictional planets in our Solar System named "Planet X". For fictional extrasolar planets named "Planet X", see Planets in science fiction#P.

Fictional planets in our Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune have been employed many times as settings or references in science fiction. Following the general reception of Pluto as the ninth planet of the Solar System in 1930, a hypothetical additional planet was sometimes called a "tenth planet". Since 1992, a very large number of objects have been found beyond Neptune; all the objects in the following list, however, are purely fictional. Common names for trans-Neptunian planets in fiction include Planet X, after a planet once believed to lie beyond Neptune, and Persephone (or Proserpina), after the wife of Pluto.

Literature

Film, TV and radio

Animation

Other

Elsewhere in the Solar System

Rogue planets

Main article: Rogue planet

Rogue planets in fiction usually originate outside the solar system, but their erratic paths lead them to within detectable range of Earth. In reality, no rogue planet has ever been detected transiting the Solar System.

Notes

  1. Uploaded to Project Gutenberg on 5 July 2009
  2. "Vulcan's Workshop by Harl Vincent - Free Ebook". Gutenberg.org. 2009-07-05. Retrieved 2013-11-16.
  3. Republished in the 1963 anthology Exploring Other Worlds (ISBN 0-02-023110-5) and the 1973 collection The Men and the Mirror (ISBN 0-441-52460-5)
  4. "Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Twin Earths". Toonopedia.com. 1952-06-16. Retrieved 2013-11-16.
  5. "Non Sequitur Comic Strip, July 15, 2009 on". Gocomics.com. Retrieved 2013-11-16.
  6. Actors: William Griffis, Ralph Bell, and Gregory Morton; Producers: Sherman H. Dreyer and Robert Weenolsen (1950-11-15). "Worlds Apart". 2000 Plus. Episode 37. 26:23 minutes in. MBS.
  7. Heinlein Society Updates
  8. "Das Zeitauge".
  9. "H._G._Ewers".
  10. "Perry Rhodan Universe".
  11. "Lemuria Silberband 28 1987 ISBN 3-8118-2043-5".
  12. Cities in Flight (Avon, 1970, p.151.
  13. The Man from Planet X (1951) at the Internet Movie Database
  14. Andrea Magrath (2011-05-18). "Sunny Kirsten Dunst is picture perfect at the Cannes photocall for her provocative new film Melancholia". Daily Mail (London). Retrieved 2011-05-27.
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