Comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...

s have appeared in numerous works of fiction. One of the earliest such works is

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

's 1839 short story "

The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, an apocalyptic science fiction story first published in ''Burton's Gentleman's Magazine'' in December 1839. Plot summary Two people, who have been renamed Eiros and C ...

", wherein the

Earth's atmosphere The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

is lost to a comet, with catastrophic results. Destruction is also caused by

impact events An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. Impact events have physical consequences and have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems, though the most frequent involve asteroids, comets or me ...

in works such as the 1977 novel ''

Lucifer's Hammer ''Lucifer's Hammer'' is a science fiction apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic science fiction, post-apocalypse-survival novel by American writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle that was first published in 1977. It was nominated for the Hugo Award f ...

'' by

Larry Niven Laurence van Cott Niven (; born April 30, 1938) is an American science fiction writer. His best-known works are ''Ringworld'' (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards, and, with Jerry Pournelle, ''The Mote in God's Eye'' ...

and

Jerry Pournelle Jerry Eugene Pournelle (; August 7, 1933 – September 8, 2017) was an American scientist in the area of operations research and human factors research, a science fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and one of the first bloggers. In the 1960s ...

, and the impact of

Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 ( formally designated D/1993 F2) broke apart in July 1992 and collided with Jupiter in July 1994, providing the first direct observation of an extraterrestrial collision of Solar System objects. This generated a l ...

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...

in 1994 was satirized by

Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his ''Discworld'' series of 41 novels. Pratchett's first nov ...

in his 1998 ''

Discworld ''Discworld'' is a comic fantasy"Humorous Fantasy" in David Pringle, ed., ''The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' (pp.31-33). London, Carlton,2006. book series written by the English author Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat pla ...

'' novel ''

The Last Continent ''The Last Continent'' is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the twenty-second book in his ''Discworld'' series. First published in 1998, it mocks the aspects of time travel such as the grandfather paradox and the Ray Bradbury s ...

''. Looming threats posed by comets are depicted in many works including

Dennis Wheatley Dennis Yeats Wheatley (8 January 1897 – 10 November 1977) was a British writer whose prolific output of thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world's best-selling authors from the 1930s through the 1960s. His Gregory Sallust series ...

's 1939 novel ''

Sixty Days to Live 60 (sixty) () is the natural number following 59 and preceding 61. Being three times 20, it is called '' threescore'' in older literature ('' kopa'' in Slavic, ''Schock'' in Germanic). In mathematics * 60 is a highly composite number. Because i ...

'' and the 1998 film '' Deep Impact''. Conversely,

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

In the Days of the Comet ''In the Days of the Comet'' (1906) is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells in which humanity is "exalted" when a comet causes "the nitrogen of the air, the old ''azote''," to "change out of itself" and become "a respirable gas, differing inde ...

'' provides a rare example of positive effects arising from Earth encountering a comet, the gases in the comet's tail altering the atmosphere in a way that transforms human character for the better. Besides comets coming to Earth, they are also visited by humans in some stories such as the 1986 novel '' Heart of the Comet'' by

Gregory Benford Gregory Benford (born January 30, 1941) is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is professor emeritus at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He is a contributing editor of ''Reason ...

and

David Brin Glen David Brin (born October 6, 1950) is an American scientist and author of science fiction. He has won the Hugo,Halley's Comet Halley's Comet or Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, is a short-period comet visible from Earth every 75–79 years. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and thus the o ...

; these concepts are combined in

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

's 1877 novel ''Hector Servadac'' (English title: ''

Off on a Comet ''Off on a Comet'' (french: Hector Servadac) is an 1877 science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne. Plot The story starts with a comet called Gallia, that touches the Earth in its flight and collects a few small chunks of it. The disas ...

'') where a cometary encounter with Earth results in a number of humans traversing the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...

with the comet. Several stories depict the extraction of resources, mainly water, from comets; one such story is the 1992 novel ''

Mining the Oort Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic viab ...

'' by

Frederik Pohl Frederik George Pohl Jr. (; November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013) was an American science-fiction writer, editor, and fan, with a career spanning nearly 75 years—from his first published work, the 1937 poem "Elegy to a Dead Satelli ...

. A few works such as

Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...

's 1975 novel ''

Imperial Earth ''Imperial Earth'' is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, published in 1975 by Gollancz Books. The plot follows the protagonist, Duncan Makenzie, on a trip to Earth from his home on Titan, in large part as a diplo ...

'' and

Robert S. Richardson Robert Shirley Richardson (April 22, 1902 – November 12, 1981) was an American astronomer, born in Kokomo, Indiana. He also published science fiction using the pseudonym Philip Latham. Career Philip Latham can support the suppositions that are ...

's 1946 short story " The Blindness" feature

anthropomorphized Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

thinking comets, and

Diana Wynne Jones Diana Wynne Jones (16 August 1934 – 26 March 2011) was a British novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, and short story writer. She principally wrote fantasy and speculative fiction novels for children and young adults. Although usually de ...

' 2007 novel '' The Game'' depicts an outright

personified Personification occurs when a thing or abstraction is represented as a person, in literature or art, as a type of anthropomorphic metaphor. The type of personification discussed here excludes passing literary effects such as "Shadows hold their ...

one.

References

Further reading