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 plutoids including 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 2005 John Scalzi novel The End of All Things has an abandoned base on Sedna.

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".^[1] The object is itself fictional, and no TNO has been assigned that designation.

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.

See also

• Pluto in fiction

References

Astronomical locations in fiction
Solar System	Mercury Venus Earth Moon Mars moons Ceres other asteroids Jupiter moons Saturn Titan other moons Uranus Neptune Pluto other TNOs comets Fictional planets of the Solar System
Other systems	Aldebaran Alpha Centauri Altair Betelgeuse Deneb Epsilon Eridani Rigel Sirius Tau Ceti Vega Fictional planets (general) Fictional planets (by medium)
Other astronomical objects	Binary stars Black holes Galaxies Nebulae Supernovae Wormholes
Inhabitants	Earthlings Jovians Martians Neptunians Venusians