Sun in fiction

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Refer to caption
"Surveying a Dying Sun", cover of If, November 1953

The

celestial objects in general known as the plurality of worlds—and depicted various kinds of solar inhabitants. As more became known about the Sun through advances in astronomy, in particular its temperature, solar inhabitants fell out of favour save for the occasional more exotic alien lifeforms. Instead, many stories focused on the eventual death of the Sun and the havoc it would wreak upon life on Earth. Before it was understood that the Sun is powered by nuclear fusion, the prevailing assumption among writers was that combustion was the source of its heat and light, and it was expected to run out of fuel relatively soon. Even after the true source of the Sun's energy was discovered in the 1920s, the dimming or extinction of the Sun remained a recurring theme in disaster stories, with occasional attempts at averting disaster by reigniting the Sun. Another common way for the Sun to cause destruction is by exploding ("going nova"), and other mechanisms such as solar flares
also appear on occasion.

Besides being a source of destruction, the Sun has been used in fiction as a source of power—both in the form of solar power and superpowers. The solar wind is also used for propulsion by spacecraft equipped with solar sails. Solar eclipses have appeared in a large number of stories, in the earliest ones often used as a ruse by characters who know that they can be predicted mathematically against those who do not by pretending to cause them, perhaps inspired by the story of Christopher Columbus doing the same with a lunar eclipse in 1504. When audiences grew weary of this trope by the 1930s or 1940s, eclipses became much more rare in fiction writing, though they saw a comeback towards the end of the century as harbingers of social upheaval. Sunspots, and their 11-year cycle of frequency in occurrence, appear in a small number of works. The Sun poses a danger to spacecraft that approach it closely, a situation that occurs by necessity or design in several stories. It is sometimes depicted as being sentient, though this is rare compared to other stars getting the same treatment. Overall, the Sun remains relatively uncommon as a point of focus in science fiction, particularly in comparison to depictions of Mars and Venus;[1] says science fiction bibliographer Richard Bleiler, "Perhaps because it is generally taken for granted, the fictive potential of the Sun has barely been tapped".[2]

Early depictions: inhabited

See also: Extraterrestrials in fiction

Although the Moon was visited early and often in science fiction, the fictive potential of the Sun was not explored until relatively late.

Richard Bleiler, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy, "The Sun" entry[2]

The

equality of the sexes.[10]

The concept of the

juvenile fiction such as John Mastin [Wikidata]'s 1909 novel Through the Sun in an Airship and Donald Horner [Wikidata]'s 1910 novel By Aeroplane to the Sun.[2][4][5][6]

In the 1900s, as it became evident that no conventional organisms could possibly survive the conditions on the Sun, more exotic solar lifeforms started appearing in fiction.

its surface, as in short stories like Jack Williamson's 1935 "Islands of the Sun", Raymond Z. Gallun's 1935 "Nova Solis", and Henry J. Kostkos's 1936 "We of the Sun".[5][6] Others take up residence elsewhere in the Solar System: in Leigh Brackett's 1942 short story "Child of the Sun", an intelligent alien from the Sun lives on the fictional planet Vulcan inside the orbit of Mercury,[6][11] and the titular creatures of Olaf Stapledon's 1947 novel The Flames are lizard-like solar beings residing inside igneous rocks on Earth.[2][6][12] Arthur C. Clarke's 1958 short story "Out of the Sun" features life "formed of tangles of magnetic flux on the surface of our Sun",[4][5][6][13] and Edmond Hamilton's 1962 short story "Sunfire!" depicts an energy-based lifeform living in the Sun's corona.[5][14][15]

Disaster

See also: Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction

The Sun has been a source of destruction or the threat thereof in many stories, most commonly either by fading or exploding.[2][4][5][6] In the rare science fiction films where the Sun is a central point of focus, it seldom plays any other role.[16]

Dimming and extinction

A photograph of fire
When the Sun was assumed to be powered by combustion, it was expected to burn out in the relatively near future.[4]

The dimming or extinction of the Sun has been a recurring theme.

potentially habitable planet in another planetary system,[4][5][22] and William Hope Hodgson, whose 1908 novel The House on the Borderland describes one character's vision of the destruction of both the Earth and Sun.[2][4][5][23]

By the 1920s, the combustion hypothesis had fallen out of favour. The new explanation was that the Sun was fuelled by

Venusians find humanity extinct due to the environmental changes brought about by the Sun fading.[6][29][30] Clarke also touched upon the subject in the 1938 poem "The Twilight of the Sun" and the 1979 novel The Fountains of Paradise.[6] In a variation on the theme, Fritz Leiber's 1951 short story "A Pail of Air" depicts Earth having been pulled away from the gravitational influence of the Sun and thus turned into a rogue planet, with a climate so cold that air has frozen and needs to be collected and thawed to turn it gaseous and breathable.[2][31] Edmond Hamilton's 1934 short story "Thundering Worlds" sees all the planets leaving the Solar System to find a new star as the Sun dies,[4][32] while his 1963 comic book story "Superman Under the Red Sun" depicts Superman travelling into the far future and losing his superpowers as a result of the aging red Sun.[6] Eric C. Williams's 1965 short story "Sunout" depicts scientists reacting to the realization that the Sun is about to go out and they are powerless to do anything about it.[4][33] In the 2019 film The Wandering Earth, the death of the Sun prompts humanity to relocate the entire Earth to a new planetary system.[34]

A handful of stories describe efforts to reignite the fading Sun.[2][4][5] In Clark Ashton Smith's 1954 short story "Phoenix" (written c. 1935), this is accomplished by detonating several nuclear weapons on the Sun's surface.[4][5][35] In Gene Wolfe's 1980–1983 four-volume novel The Book of the New Sun and its sequels, a white hole is used to reinvigorate the dying Sun.[2][4][5][36] The concept of using an explosive device for this purpose is also explored in the 2007 film Sunshine.[1][4][34]

Exploding

See also: Supernovae in fiction
Artist's impression of a supernova
Artist's impression of an exploding star. Several stories depict the Sun undergoing such an event.

Several stories depict the Sun exploding, or "going

The Solarians, the Sun is intentionally made to explode in an act of interstellar warfare,[4][5][37] while in Larry Niven's 1971 short story "The Fourth Profession" aliens plan to induce such an event to use as a power source for space travel.[2][44] In Edward Wellen's 1971 novel Hijack, the Mafia is duped into abandoning Earth by being misled that the Sun will turn into a nova.[4][5][45] Connie Willis's 1979 short story "Daisy, in the Sun" is a coming-of-age parable that relates a young girl getting her first period to the imminent end of the world.[5][46][47][48]

Other

The heat of the Sun dooms life on Earth when the Earth's orbit is disrupted in John Hawkins's 1938 short story "Ark of Fire", the 1961 film The Day the Earth Caught Fire, and the 1961 episode "The Midnight Sun" of the television show The Twilight Zone.[2][4][16] More fancifully, Clare Winger Harris's 1928 short story "The Menace of Mars" depicts an increase in heat from the Sun threatening the Earth as a result of a general cosmological change in the properties of the universe, which leads Mars to adjust Earth's orbit to serve as a shield against the Sun's radiation.[2][49]

Refer to caption
A filament eruption, a type of solar storm

Solar Crisis depicts a mission to bomb the Sun to avert the destruction that could be caused by an immense predicted solar flare,[16][34] while the 2005 novel Sunstorm by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter portrays mankind constructing a large shielding object at the Sun–Earth L1 Lagrange point as protection against the threat posed by a similar event.[4][5][51] In David Koepp's 2022 novel Aurora, a coronal mass ejection threatens to end human civilization; the book appears alongside Niven's "Inconstant Moon" on a list of science fiction works with relatively scientifically plausible depictions of the Sun compiled by astronomer Andrew Fraknoi.[52]

More long-lasting changes in solar output appear in

synchronous rotation—where the same side of the Earth faces the Sun at all times, thus protecting the other half of the planet from the scorching heat—for two millennia until the Sun dims again,[5][53] and George O. Smith's 1953 novel Troubled Star, where aliens seek to turn the Sun into a variable star.[4][5]

Properties and phenomena

Orbital mechanics

See also: Fictional planets of the Solar System § Counter-Earth
Refer to caption
Schematic diagram of the shared orbit of Earth and the fictional Counter-Earth (Gor). The two planets are always hidden from each other's view by the Sun. In reality, this orbital arrangement would not be stable.[54]

The Sun hides

Tarnsman of Gor.[2][54] This Counter-Earth is inhabited by counterparts of the people of Earth in the 1969 film Doppelgänger (a.k.a. Journey to the Far Side of the Sun) and by a society of women in the 1950s comic strip Twin Earths.[2][16][54] The 1972 anthology The Day the Sun Stood Still contains three different short stories (by Poul Anderson, Robert Silverberg, and Gordon R. Dickson) where the Sun stops in the sky as in the biblical Book of Joshua.[4][55]

Power source

The

solar arrays in close orbits around the Sun itself.[1] The Sun is also the source of comic book superhero Superman's superpowers,[34] as well as those of supervillains Sun Girl from DC Comics and Solarr from Marvel Comics.[6]

Solar wind

See also: Space travel in science fiction

Following German astronomer

inertialess drive.[56] The 1990 anthology Project Solar Sail edited by Clarke and David Brin collects various stories and essays about solar sails.[6][56]

Eclipses

Further information: Solar eclipses in fiction and List of films featuring eclipses
Scene from the 1961 film Barabbas
The 1961 film Barabbas portrayed the crucifixion darkness by filming during the totality of the solar eclipse of February 15, 1961.

marginalized groups "experience a reversal of fortunes when the Moon takes center stage and blots out the Sun".[59]

Sunspots

The 11-year

mass delusions.[16]

Close encounters

The Sun appears as a hazard to spaceships that approach it too closely in some stories.[4][5] In John W. Campbell's 1935 short story "Blindness", a scientist studies the Sun at close range in order to solve the mysteries of nuclear energy at great personal cost, only to find that the method for getting there was worth more than the discoveries made.[6][68] Willy Ley's 1937 short story "At the Perihelion" involves a close approach to the Sun as part of an escape from Mars,[4][5][69] and Charles L. Harness's 1949 novel The Paradox Men (a.k.a. Flight into Yesterday) is a space opera that climaxes with a swordfight atop a space station on the surface of the Sun.[4][5][70][71] In Ray Bradbury's 1953 short story "The Golden Apples of the Sun", a crewed solar sample-return mission requires a spaceship to be cooled to near-absolute zero to endure the extreme heat during the critical phase.[4][6][16][72] A fleet of near-Sun spacecraft that modulate the solar output for weather control purposes appears in Theodore L. Thomas's 1962 short story "The Weather Man".[4][5][73] David Brin's 1980 novel Sundiver revolves around a hard science fiction journey into the Sun.[4][5][74][75]

Sentient

A still frame from The Impossible Voyage (1904)
The Sun in the 1904 short film The Impossible Voyage, an early science fiction film by Georges Méliès[76]

Some works depict the Sun as being sentient.[2][4][6][77] According to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, this is more commonly applied to other stars;[4] in Olaf Stapledon's 1937 novel Star Maker, all stars are sentient,[6] and in Diana Wynne Jones's 1975 novel Dogsbody, both the Sun and Sirius are sentient.[4][6] In Gregory Benford and Gordon Eklund's 1977 novel If the Stars are Gods, aliens come to the Solar System to communicate with the Sun.[2][4][6][16] According to The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, the Sun is usually male in fictional mythologies where it is personified, though some exceptions exist such as the legendarium of J. R. R. Tolkien, in whose cosmology it is female.[77] The Sun is likewise female in Alasdair Gray's 1983 short story "The Problem", and concerned with her spots.[2]

See also

A photomontage of the eight planets and the MoonNeptune in fictionUranus in fictionSaturn in fictionJupiter in fictionMars in fictionEarth in science fictionMoon in science fictionVenus in fictionMercury in fiction
Clicking on a planet leads to the article about its depiction in fiction.

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Further reading

General
Sun exploding
Solar eclipses
Solar wind
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