Astronomy:Trans-Neptunian objects in fiction

The region of the Solar System beyond Neptune contains sparse populations of relatively small rocky and icy objects. These include the Kuiper belt, a group which includes the dwarf planet Pluto and other large planetoids such as Haumea and Makemake. Further out is the scattered disk, a group which includes Eris, a dwarf planet slightly smaller than Pluto, and even more distant detached objects such as Sedna.

In the past, the use of this area of the solar system as a setting for science fiction has been limited to Pluto, given its comparatively early discovery in 1930, and trans-plutonian fictional planets. However, as Eris, other dwarf planets such as Haumea and Makemake and further trans-Neptunian objects have been discovered and the region has been better scrutinized by astronomers, works of fiction have begun to reflect the region more extensively and realistically.

Literature

• In Saturn's Children (2008), a novel by Charles Stross, an intelligent robot in the service of a shadowy organisation travels throughout the Solar System, with the plot climax on Eris.
• In The Unincorporated Man (2009), by Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin, Eris is settled by puritanical prudes.
• In Arthur C. Clarke's 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997), one of several prose sequel novel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, features a mission to mine the Kuiper belt for water in order to terraform Venus.
• The 2015 John Scalzi novel The End of All Things has an abandoned base on Sedna.
• In Higher Reality (2015) by Alexander Janzer, a part of the story takes place in the Oort Cloud and near the planet Eris.

Film and television

• In "The Griffin Equivalency", the fourth episode of the second season of The Big Bang Theory, Raj Koothrappali is included in People magazine's "30 Under 30 to watch" list for his discovery of a trans-Neptunian object beyond the Kuiper belt. Officially designated 2008 NQ₁₇, Raj had nicknamed the body "Planet Bollywood". The object is itself fictional, and no TNO has been assigned that designation.
• Throughout the Gemini Home Entertainment YouTube horror series, a sentient rogue planet named the Iris is presented as its main antagonist. Described in numerous terms relating to its resemblance to an eyeball, the Iris invaded the solar system with the intent of launching a full-scale attack on it; it has 'mutated' Neptune through unknown means, and appears to be aware of complex life on Earth, as it is behind the creation of numerous paranormal creatures sent to attack humanity.

Games

• In the video game series Mass Effect (2007–), Pluto's moon Charon is discovered by humanity, in 2149, to be a Mass Relay encased in ice.
• In the roleplaying game setting GURPS Transhuman Space, Quaoar is the site of an anomaly of possible extraterrestrial origin. Other Kuiper Belt objects have been colonized in the setting or redirected for the terraforming of Mars.

See also

• Pluto in fiction