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} }) </script> </div> </form> </fieldset> <article class="entryArticle content STeditorial"> <header class="entryHeader icon-theme"> <h1 class="entryTitle">Asteroids </h1> </header><p class='tagLine'>Entry updated 2 January 2023. Tagged: Theme.</p><div class="browsingBtns"> <span> <input class="button PNI previous" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?id=p&entry=asteroids'" value="Prev" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI next" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?&entry=asteroids'" value="Next" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI incoming" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/incoming.php?entry=asteroids'" value="About This Entry" title="What links to the entry; contributor initials explained; how to cite; other information" /> </span> </div> <p>The asteroids (or minor planets) mostly lie between the orbits of <a href="/entry/mars">Mars</a> and <a href="/entry/jupiter">Jupiter</a>. The first to be discovered was Ceres, identified by Giuseppe Piazzi (1746-1826) in 1801; three more, including Vesta and Pallas, were discovered in the same decade, and hundreds of thousands have now been catalogued. Only a few are over 150 km (100 miles) in diameter, the largest – Ceres, classified since 2006 as a dwarf planet rather than an asteroid – being some 700 km (435 miles) across. A once popular but now unfashionable theory originated by Heinrich Olbers (1755-1840) holds that the asteroids may be the debris of a fifth planet torn asunder in some long-ago cosmic <a href="/entry/disaster">Disaster</a>. Robert <a href="/entry/cromie_robert">Cromie</a>'s <i>The Crack of Doom</i> (<b>1895</b>) ascribes this to misuse of <a href="/entry/nuclear_energy">Nuclear Energy</a>; Gerald <a href="/entry/heard_gerald">Heard</a>'s <i>Reply Paid</i> (<b>1942</b>) as by H F Heard similarly speculates that this world's inhabitants unwisely "monkeyed with matter's make-up"; Robert A <a href="/entry/heinlein_robert_a">Heinlein</a>'s <i>Space Cadet</i> (<b>1948</b>), Lord <a href="/entry/dunsany_lord">Dunsany</a>'s "The Gods of Clay" (in <i>Jorkens Borrows Another Whiskey</i> coll <b>1954</b>) and a few other moral tales of the 1950s – not to mention works of <a href="/entry/pseudoscience">Pseudoscience</a> to this day – likewise state or suggest that nuclear <a href="/entry/holocaust">Holocaust</a> (after the expected fashion of <a href="/entry/world_war_three">World War Three</a>) was responsible. The latter theory features prominently in James <a href="/entry/blish_james">Blish</a>'s thriller <i>The Frozen Year</i> (<b>1957</b>; vt <i>Fallen Star</i> <b>1957</b>), while the hypothetical war transcends time to continue in the mind of a human astronaut in "Asleep in Armageddon" (Winter 1948 <a href="/entry/planet_stories">Planet Stories</a>) by Ray <a href="/entry/bradbury_ray">Bradbury</a>, and long-ago nuclear testing by the people of <a href="/entry/mars">Mars</a> is blamed in Theodore R <a href="/entry/cogswell_theodore_r">Cogswell</a>'s "Test Area" (February 1955 <a href="/entry/fantastic_universe">Fantastic Universe</a>). Heinlein offered further variations in <i>Between Planets</i> (<b>1951</b>), which suggests that the former fifth planet was shattered by a lost super-science, and in <i>Stranger in a Strange Land</i> (<b>1961</b>; text restored <b>1991</b>), which states explicitly that this hypothetical world was destroyed by the Martians (presumably via their <a href="/entry/psi_powers">Psi Powers</a>). The trope reappears in James P <a href="/entry/hogan_james_p">Hogan</a>'s <i>Inherit the Stars</i> (<b>1977</b>), in which it emerges that the fifth planet Minerva was broken up (apparently by "nucleonic weapons") a mere 50,000 years ago. An alternative to all these past doomsday scenarios is offered in Clifford D <a href="/entry/simak_clifford_d">Simak</a>'s "Construction Shack" (January/February 1973 <a href="/entry/if">If</a>), in which blueprints used by the solar system's builders are discovered inside Pluto (see <a href="/entry/outer_planets">Outer Planets</a>) and imply that the asteroids result from a botched attempt to construct a planet in that orbit.</p> <p>Some asteroids have extremely eccentric orbits which take them inside – in some cases well inside – the orbit of <a href="/entry/mars">Mars</a> or even that of the Earth. One such is featured in Arthur C <a href="/entry/clarke_arthur_c">Clarke</a>'s "Summertime on Icarus" (June 1960 <i>Vogue</i>), and the climax of James Blish's and Norman L <a href="/entry/knight_norman_l">Knight</a>'s <i>A Torrent of Faces</i> (<b>1967</b>) involves a collision between Earth and asteroid Flavia. Several thousand "near-Earth" asteroids have been catalogued. Cruithne, discovered in 1986, has an unusual orbit bringing it "close" to Earth (some 30 times the distance of the <a href="/entry/moon">Moon</a>) roughly annually: an expedition to this asteroid features in Stephen <a href="/entry/baxter_stephen">Baxter</a>'s <i>Time: Manifold 1</i> (<b>1999</b>; vt <i>Manifold: Time</i> <b>1999</b>). The imagined asteroid nicknamed Gateway in Frederik <a href="/entry/pohl_frederik">Pohl</a>'s <i>Gateway</i> (November 1976-March 1977 <a href="/entry/galaxy">Galaxy</a>; <b>1977</b>), used as an <a href="/entry/aliens">Alien</a> starship depot half a million years ago, long went unnoticed since its orbit is at right angles to the ecliptic.</p> <p>In primitive <a href="/entry/space_opera">Space Operas</a> the asteroid belt tended to figure as a hazard for all ships venturing beyond Mars. Near misses and actual collisions were common; Isaac <a href="/entry/asimov_isaac">Asimov</a>'s "Marooned off Vesta" (March 1939 <a href="/entry/amazing">Amazing</a>) begins with one such. Jack <a href="/entry/williamson_jack">Williamson</a>'s <i>Seetee Shock</i> (February-April 1949 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; <b>1950</b>) features a region of asteroid junk so dense that virtually no one can steer safely to its heart. <i>The Outward Urge</i> (coll of linked stories <b>1959</b>; exp <b>1961</b>) by John <a href="/entry/wyndham_john">Wyndham</a> "with" his pseudonym Lucas Parkes describes the Belt at some length as "a very tricky area" fraught with uncharted hazards. As late as 1960, <i>Eight Keys to Eden</i> (<b>1960</b>) by Mark <a href="/entry/clifton_mark">Clifton</a> reiterated the notion that extraordinary navigational care is required in the Belt: "No chart can keep up to the microsecond on these asteroid movements." Modern writers, however, generally realize both that the matter in the asteroid belt is very thinly distributed; and additionally that, as virtually all the asteroids move roughly in the plane of the ecliptic, it is easy to fly "over" or "under" them <i>en route</i> to <a href="/entry/jupiter">Jupiter</a> and the <a href="/entry/outer_planets">Outer Planets</a> – an approach revealed as a startling and unexpected ploy in the just-cited <i>Eight Keys to Eden</i>. This did not deter Piers <a href="/entry/anthony_piers">Anthony</a>, in <i>Mercenary</i> (<b>1984</b>), from quirkily modelling an asteroid-belt battle on the thirteenth-century Mongol invasion of Hungary (see <a href="/entry/history_in_sf">History in SF</a>) so closely as to neglect the fact that space has three dimensions and to treat "rivers" of space dust and debris as impassable obstacles.</p> <p>The asteroids figure most frequently in early sf in connection with mining. In the <a href="/entry/pulp">Pulp</a> sf tradition they became an analogue of the Klondike, where men were men and mules were second-hand <a href="/entry/spaceships">Spaceships</a>. Notable examples of this species of sub-Western space opera include Clifford D <a href="/entry/simak_clifford_d">Simak</a>'s "The Asteroid of Gold" (November 1932 <a href="/entry/wonder_stories">Wonder Stories</a>), Stanton A <a href="/entry/coblentz_stanton_a">Coblentz</a>'s "The Golden Planetoid" (August 1935 <a href="/entry/amazing">Amazing</a>), Malcolm <a href="/entry/jameson_malcolm">Jameson</a>'s "Prospectors of Space" (September 1940 <a href="/entry/tws">Thrilling Wonder</a>) and Jack <a href="/entry/williamson_jack">Williamson</a>'s <i>Seetee Ship</i> (July and November 1942, January-February 1943 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; fixup <b>1951</b>; magazine stories and early editions as by Will Stewart). The analogy between the asteroid belt and the Wild West was soon extended, so that the lawless asteroids became the perfect place for interplanetary skulduggery, and they featured frequently in space-piracy stories of the kind popularized by <a href="/entry/planet_stories">Planet Stories</a>; examples are "Asteroid Pirates" (August 1938 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>) by Royal W Heckman and "The Prison of the Stars" (November 1953 <a href="/entry/planet_stories">Planet Stories</a>) by Stanley <a href="/entry/mullen_stanley">Mullen</a>. The mythology was transplanted intact to the asteroids of other solar systems by E E <a href="/entry/smith_e_e">Smith</a> in <i>Gray Lensman</i> (October 1939-January 1940 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; <b>1951</b>) and co-opted into juvenile sf by Isaac <a href="/entry/asimov_isaac">Asimov</a> in <i>Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids</i> (<b>1953</b> as by Paul French; vt <i>Pirates of the Asteroids</i> <b>1973</b>). A gentler, more civilized asteroid-mining community features in Robert A <a href="/entry/heinlein_robert_a">Heinlein</a>'s juvenile <i>The Rolling Stones</i> (<b>1952</b>; vt <i>Space Family Stone</i> <b>1969</b>). One twenty-first-century instance of space pirates versus asteroid miners, perhaps homaging E E Smith, is <i>Star Risk, Ltd</i> (<b>2002</b>) by Chris <a href="/entry/bunch_chris">Bunch</a>.</p> <p>The use of the asteroids as alien worlds in their own right or as places fit for <a href="/entry/colonization_of_other_worlds">Colonization</a> has been understandably limited: they are too small to offer much scope. Clark Ashton <a href="/entry/smith_clark_ashton">Smith</a>'s "Master of the Asteroid" (October 1932 <a href="/entry/wonder_stories">Wonder Stories</a>) and Edmond <a href="/entry/hamilton_edmond">Hamilton</a>'s "The Horror on the Asteroid" (September 1933 <a href="/entry/weird_tales">Weird Tales</a>) feature humans being marooned as a result of unfortunate collisions and meeting unpleasantly strange fates. The creature in Eden <a href="/entry/phillpotts_eden">Phillpotts</a>'s <i>Saurus</i> (<b>1938</b>) was dispatched to Earth from the asteroid Hermes but, as he was still an egg at the time, he was unable later to give much of an account of life there. Asteroidal Shangri-Las are featured in Fox B Holden's "The Death Star" (April 1951 <a href="/entry/super_science_stories">Super Science Stories</a>) and Poul <a href="/entry/anderson_poul">Anderson</a>'s "Garden in the Void" (May 1952 <a href="/entry/galaxy">Galaxy</a>), but in general the most interesting sf asteroids are those which turn out to be <a href="spaceships">Spaceships</a> in disguise, like the one in Murray <a href="/entry/leinster_murray">Leinster</a>'s <i>The Wailing Asteroid</i> (<b>1961</b>). The asteroid/spaceship in Greg <a href="/entry/bear_greg">Bear</a>'s <i>Eon</i> (<b>1985</b>) turns out to be pregnant with all manner of astonishing possibilities including an internal <a href="/entry/macrostructures">Macrostructure</a> of infinite extent. Jack <a href="/entry/vance_jack">Vance</a>'s "I'll Build Your Dream Castle" (September 1947 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>) depicts a series of asteroidal real-estate deals, but the feats of <a href="/entry/terraforming">Terraforming</a> involved stretch the reader's credulity. Charles <a href="/entry/platt_charles">Platt</a>'s <i>Garbage World</i> (<b>1967</b>) features an asteroid which serves as the dumping-ground for interplanetary pleasure resorts, but this is not to be taken too seriously. A scattered, tough-minded asteroid-belt society, the Belters, plays an important role in Larry <a href="/entry/niven_larry">Niven</a>'s <b>Tales of Known Space</b> series. Niven, in traditional fashion, sees the Belters as miners similar in spirit to the colonists of the Old West. One major work on this theme is Poul <a href="/entry/anderson_poul">Anderson</a>'s <i>Tales of the Flying Mountains</i> (April 1963-September 1965 <a href="/entry/analog">Analog</a> as by Winston P Sanders; fixup <b>1970</b>), an episodic novel tracing the development of the asteroid culture from its inception to its declaration of independence and beyond. (An earlier Sanders story set in the asteroid belt was "Barnacle Bull" [September 1960 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>/<a href="/entry/analog">Analog</a>].) A more up-to-date image of life on the belt frontier is offered in "Mother in the Sky with Diamonds" (March 1971 <a href="/entry/galaxy">Galaxy</a>) by James <a href="/entry/tiptree_james_jr">Tiptree</a> Jr, and a notable modern <a href="/entry/hard_sf">Hard-SF</a> story partly set on an unusual asteroid is <i>Starfire</i> (<b>1988</b>) by Paul <a href="/entry/preuss_paul">Preuss</a>.</p> <p>Stories in which asteroids are removed from their natural orbits include Robert A Heinlein's early "Misfit" (November 1939 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>), whose asteroid is transformed into a <a href="/entry/space_stations">Space Station</a> and shifted to a new orbit between Earth and <a href="/entry/mars">Mars</a>; Greg <a href="/entry/bear_greg">Bear</a>'s "The Wind from a Burning Woman" (October 1978 <a href="/entry/analog">Analog</a>), threatening Earth impact from a dirigible asteroid; Bob <a href="/entry/shaw_bob">Shaw</a>'s melodramatic <i>The Ceres Solution</i> (<b>1981</b>), in which Ceres is used to destroy the <a href="/entry/moon">Moon</a>; and <i>Farside Cannon</i> (<b>1988</b>) by Roger MacBride <a href="/entry/allen_roger_macbride">Allen</a>, in which a similar but less desirable collision is averted. Hostile aliens inflict great damage on Earth with directed asteroids in <i>Footfall</i> (<b>1985</b>) by Larry <a href="/entry/niven_larry">Niven</a> and Jerry <a href="/entry/pournelle_jerry">Pournelle</a>, and in <i>Fisherman's Hope</i> (<b>1996</b>) by David <a href="/entry/feintuch_david">Feintuch</a>. Media portrayals of threatened or actual disaster by asteroid impact on Earth (in this context see also <a href="/entry/comets">Comets</a>) include <a href="/entry/meteor">Meteor</a> (<i>1979</i>), <a href="/entry/asteroid_tv">Asteroid</a> (<i>1997</i>) and <a href="/entry/armageddon">Armageddon</a> (<i>1998</i>).</p> <p>The asteroids have become less significant as action-adventure sf has moved out into the greater galactic wilderness, but the idea that colonization of the solar system might involve the construction of purpose-built <a href="/entry/space_habitats">Space Habitats</a> rather than descents into hostile gravity-wells has suggested to many writers that hollowed-out asteroids might have their uses; the most extravagant extrapolation of this notion can be found in George <a href="/entry/zebrowski_george">Zebrowski</a>'s <i>Macrolife</i> (<b>1979</b>), where asteroid habitats become a fleet of <a href="/entry/world_ships">World Ships</a> (which see for further examples of such conversion). A host of transformed asteroids provides unlimited living space, a huge variety of custom environments and incidental intrasystem <a href="/entry/transportation">Transportation</a> in Kim Stanley <a href="/entry/robinson_kim_stanley">Robinson</a>'s <i>2312</i> (<b>2012</b>). Also durable are the ancient pulp <a href="/entry/cliches">Clichés</a> of asteroid-mining, claim-jumping and rebellious mining colonies, revived at some length in the <b>Asteroid Wars</b> subseries of Ben <a href="/entry/bova_ben">Bova</a>'s <b>Tales of the Grand Tour</b> sequence, beginning with <i>The Precipice</i> (<b>2001</b>).</p> <p>As with lunar and Martian craters and features on other planets, many real-world asteroids have been named for sf/fantasy creators and even, occasionally, their best-known fictional characters. Those so honoured – with asteroid names given in parentheses where these are not simply the name or surname – include Douglas <a href="/entry/adams_douglas">Adams</a> (Douglasadams) and his character Arthur Dent (Arthurdent), Nikolai <a href="/entry/amosov_n">Amosov</a>, Poul <a href="/entry/anderson_poul">Anderson</a> (Poulanderson), Isaac <a href="/entry/asimov_isaac">Asimov</a>, Marcel <a href="/entry/ayme_marcel">Aymé</a> (Marcelaymé), Iain <a href="/entry/banks_iain_m">Banks</a> (Iainbanks), J M Barrie (Neverland), Eric Temple Bell (Erictemplebell; see John <a href="/entry/taine_john">Taine</a>), Alfred <a href="/entry/bester_alfred">Bester</a> (Alfbester), Chesley <a href="/entry/bonestell_chesley">Bonestell</a>, James <a href="/entry/blish_james">Blish</a> and Norman L <a href="/entry/knight_norman_l">Knight</a> (Flavia, the Earth-impacting asteroid in their above-cited <i>A Torrent of Faces</i>), Jorge Luis <a href="/entry/borges_jorge_luis">Borges</a>, Ray <a href="/entry/bradbury_ray">Bradbury</a>, David <a href="/entry/brin_david">Brin</a> (Davebrin), Mikhail <a href="/entry/bulgakov_mikhail">Bulgakov</a>, Edgar Rice <a href="/entry/burroughs_edgar_rice">Burroughs</a>, Italo <a href="/entry/calvino_italo">Calvino</a> (Italocalvino), Karel <a href="/entry/capek_karel">Čapek</a> and Josef <a href="/entry/capek_josef">Čapek</a> (Josefčapek) and their coinage <a href="/entry/robots">Robot</a>, Lewis <a href="/entry/carroll_lewis">Carroll</a> (Lewiscarroll) and some of his characters, Francis Carsac (see <a href="/entry/france">France</a>), C J <a href="/entry/cherryh_c_j">Cherryh</a>, Arthur C <a href="/entry/clarke_arthur_c">Clarke</a> and his creations <i>Discovery</i> (<a href="/entry/spaceships">Spaceship</a>) and Hal (<a href="/entry/ai">AI</a>), <a href="/entry/cyrano_de_bergerac">Cyrano de Bergerac</a>, Roald <a href="/entry/dahl_roald">Dahl</a>, Alfred <a href="/entry/doblin_alfred">Döblin</a>, Arthur Conan <a href="/entry/doyle_arthur_conan">Doyle</a> (Conandoyle) and some of his characters – in particular <a href="/entry/sherlock_holmes">Sherlock Holmes</a> (Sherlock) – Ivan Efremov or <a href="/entry/yefremov_ivan">Yefremov</a> (Efremiana), Bob <a href="/entry/eggleton_bob">Eggleton</a> (Bobeggleton), Harlan <a href="/entry/ellison_harlan">Ellison</a>, Brian <a href="/entry/eno_brian">Eno</a> (full name as in entry; Eno for short), Camille <a href="/entry/flammarion_camille">Flammarion</a> (Flammario) and his character Iclea, Anatole <a href="/entry/france_anatole">France</a> (Anatolefrance), Terry <a href="/entry/gilliam_terry">Gilliam</a> (Terrygilliam) and the other five core members of the <a href="/entry/monty_pythons_flying_circus">Monty Python's Flying Circus</a> (<i>1969-1974</i>) team – in addition to which, asteroid 13681 (discovered 1997) is named Monty Python – George <a href="/entry/gamow_george">Gamow</a> and his character Mr Tompkins, Martin <a href="/entry/gardner_martin">Gardner</a>, Alexander <a href="/entry/grin_alexander">Grin</a> (Grinevia; see <a href="/entry/russia">Russia</a>), David A <a href="/entry/hardy_david_a">Hardy</a> (Davidhardy), Robert A <a href="/entry/heinlein_robert_a">Heinlein</a> (Robheinlein), Frank <a href="/entry/herbert_frank">Herbert</a> (Frankherbert), Fred <a href="/entry/hoyle_fred">Hoyle</a>, Aldous <a href="/entry/huxley_aldous">Huxley</a> (Aldoushuxley), Franz <a href="/entry/kafka_franz">Kafka</a>, Sakyo <a href="/entry/komatsu_sakyo">Komatsu</a> (Komatsusakyo), Stanley <a href="/entry/kubrick_stanley">Kubrick</a>, Kurd <a href="/entry/lasswitz_kurd">Laßwitz</a>, Fritz <a href="/entry/leiber_fritz">Leiber</a> (Fritzleiber), Stanisław <a href="/entry/lem_stanislaw">Lem</a> and his character Ijon Tichy (Ijontichy), C S <a href="/entry/lewis_c_s">Lewis</a> (Cslewis), Primo <a href="/entry/levi_primo">Levi</a> (Primolevi), Jack <a href="/entry/london_jack">London</a>, George <a href="/entry/lucas_george">Lucas</a> (Georgelucas), Jack <a href="/entry/mcdevitt_jack">McDevitt</a> (Jackmcdevitt), Hayao <a href="/entry/miyazaki_hayao">Miyazaki</a> (Miyazakihayao), Sir Thomas <a href="/entry/more_sir_thomas">More</a> (Thomasmore), Harry <a href="/entry/mulisch_harry">Mulisch</a>, Randall <a href="/entry/munroe_randall">Munroe</a>, Vladimir <a href="/entry/nabokov_vladimir">Nabokov</a> (there is also a Lolita crater on Eros), Ondřej Neff (see <a href="/entry/czech_and_slovak_sf">Czech and Slovak SF</a>), Nichelle <a href="/entry/nichols_nichelle">Nichols</a> of <a href="/entry/star_trek">Star Trek</a> – also Leonard Nimoy and his series character Mr Spock – Vladimir A <a href="/entry/obruchev_vladimir_a">Obruchev</a>, George <a href="/entry/orwell_george">Orwell</a>, Luděk Pe&scaron;ek (Ludekpesek), Frederik <a href="/entry/pohl_frederik">Pohl</a>, Terry <a href="/entry/pratchett_terry">Pratchett</a>, François <a href="/entry/rabelais_francois">Rabelais</a>, Kim Stanley <a href="/entry/robinson_kim_stanley">Robinson</a>, (Kimrobinson), Gene <a href="/entry/roddenberry_gene">Roddenberry</a>, J K Rowling, Carl <a href="/entry/sagan_carl">Sagan</a>, Antoine de <a href="/entry/saint-exupery_antoine_de">Saint-Exupéry</a>, Steven <a href="/entry/spielberg_steven">Spielberg</a>, Norman <a href="/entry/spinrad_norman">Spinrad</a> (Normanspinrad), J Michael <a href="/entry/straczynski_j_michael">Straczynski</a>, Arkady and Boris <a href="/entry/strugatski_arkady">Strugatski</a> (Strugatskia), Jonathan <a href="/entry/swift_jonathan">Swift</a> and his <a href="/entry/gulliver">Gulliver</a> creations Laputa and Lilliput (Lilliputia), Leo <a href="/entry/szilard_leo">Szilárd</a>, George <a href="/entry/takei_george">Takei</a>, Andrei <a href="/entry/tarkovsky_andrei">Tarkovsky</a> (Tarkovskij), J R R <a href="/entry/tolkien_j_r_r">Tolkien</a>, Alexei <a href="/entry/tolstoy_alexei">Tolstoy</a> (Alexejtolstoj) and his creation Aelita (Aehlita), Konstantin <a href="/entry/tsiolkovsky_konstantin">Tsiolkovsky</a> (Tsiolkovskaja), Mark <a href="/entry/twain_mark">Twain</a>, A E <a href="/entry/van_vogt_a_e">van Vogt</a>, Jules <a href="/entry/verne_jules">Verne</a> and his creations Nautilus and Nemo, <a href="/entry/voltaire">Voltaire</a>, Kurt <a href="/entry/vonnegut_kurt_jr">Vonnegut</a> Jr and Bernard <a href="/entry/wolfe_bernard">Wolfe</a> (Bernardwolfe). 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