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"None of us, no matter what continent or island or ice cap, asked to be born in the first place, and that even somebody as old as I am, which is 80, only just got here."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
 |
| Wandering Worlds | ||
| Planets that are attached to no sun, and roam interstellar space. |
This is probably the earliest reference to a planet that is not gravitationally bound to a star.
| Bronson's calculations revealed to him that these wandering spheres would pass very close to the earth, make a circuit of our sun, and turn back toward space and infinity. The larger of the two wandering worlds would strike and annihilate the earth. Finer and more delicate calculations tended to show that the smaller body, which was of the same magnitude as the earth, would be "caught" by the sun and held in an orbit between the courses of Mars and Venus.
It would be an end of the world preceded by the close passage of two mighty planets from some sun lost in the void - two planets which had been pulled from their pathways ages ago by a passing star... |
| Technovelgy from When Worlds Collide,
by Edwin Balmer (w/P. Wylie). Published by University of Nebraska Press in 1932 Additional resources -
|
See also Xenephrene Interstellar World from A Brand New World (1942) by Ray Cummings, rogue planet from Poul Anderson's 1967 novel Satan's World and rogue world from George R.R. Martin's 1977 novel Dying of the Light.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from When Worlds Collide
More Ideas
and Technology by Edwin Balmer (w/P. Wylie)
Tech news articles related to When Worlds Collide
Tech news articles related to works by Edwin Balmer (w/P. Wylie)
Wandering Worlds-related
news articles:
- More Nomad Planets Than Stars?
- Free-Floating Planet Capture Not Rare, Says Paper
- Earth A Rogue Planet? A Wandering World?
| Beautiful Visualization of Dawn Spacecraft |
| Tumblin' Tumbleweed Rovers To Eplore Mars |
| Tentacled Robot Captures Space Debris |
| Reflect Orbital Sunlight On Demand |
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'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
'The king, an old hand in the running of tyrannies, instantly grasped the directions...'
'...a hemispherical force field enclosing his head.'
'Then he became aware of a gentle pressure pushing him away from the ship.'
'And now they wre busily transforming all their companions, and so on, and so on...'
