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Earth In Fiction
The overwhelming majority of fiction is set on or features the Earth, as the only planet home to humans or known to have life. This also holds true of science fiction, despite perceptions to the contrary. Works that focus specifically on Earth may do so holistically, treating the planet as one semi-biological entity. Counterfactual depictions of the shape of the Earth, be it flat or hollow, are occasionally featured. A personified, living Earth appears in a handful of works. In works set in the far future, Earth can be a center of space-faring human civilization, or just one of many inhabited planets of a galactic empire, and sometimes destroyed by ecological disaster or nuclear war or otherwise forgotten or lost. Related vocabulary In a number of works of science fiction, Earth's English name has become less popular, and the planet is instead known as Terra or Tellus, Latin words for Earth. Inhabitants of Earth can be referred to as Earthlings, Earthers, Earthborn, Eart ...
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The Earth Seen From Apollo 17
''The'' is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the Most common words in English, most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a con ...
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Class M Planet
In the ''Star Trek'' universe, a Class M planet is one habitable by humans and similar life forms. Earth, Vulcan, Romulus, and Qo'noS are examples of Class M planets. The planet needs an atmosphere of oxygen and nitrogen, should be close to a stable star, have fertile soil, a tolerable gravity, and a climate that is generally pleasant for humans. Most planets shown in the franchise are Class M planets; occasionally another alphabetically named class of planet is shown, each hostile to humanoid life in one or more ways. As a story device, this allowed for easy filming without restriction by environmental suits, but ''Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...'' correspondent Gretchen Vogel called it a "failure of imagination" when thinking about the limits of the zon ...
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David Brin
Glen David Brin (born October 6, 1950) is an American science fiction author. He has won the Hugo Award, Hugo,Who's Getting Your Vote?
, October 29, 2008, ''Reason magazine, Reason''
Locus Award, Locus, John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, Campbell and Nebula Awards. His novel ''The Postman'' was adapted into a 1997 The Postman (film), feature film starring Kevin Costner.


Early life and education

Brin was born in Glendale, California, in 1950 to Selma and Herb Brin. He graduated from the California Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in astronomy, in 1973."David Brin". ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Detroit: Gale, 2004. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, 2018-02-01. Available onlin

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Camille Flammarion
Nicolas Camille Flammarion FRAS (; 26 February 1842 – 3 June 1925) was a French astronomer and author. He was a prolific author of more than fifty titles, including popular science works about astronomy, several notable early science fiction novels, and works on psychical research and related topics. He also published the magazine '' L'Astronomie'', starting in 1882. He maintained a private observatory at Juvisy-sur-Orge, France. Biography Camille Flammarion was born in Montigny-le-Roi, Haute-Marne, France. He was the brother of Ernest Flammarion (1846–1936), the founder of the Groupe Flammarion publishing house. In 1858, he became a professional at computery at the Paris Observatory. He was a founder and the first president of the '' Société astronomique de France'', which originally had its own independent journal, ''BSAF'' (''Bulletin de la Société astronomique de France''), which was first published in 1887. In January 1895, after 13 volumes of '' L'Astrono ...
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Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar day) that is synchronized to its orbital period (Lunar month#Synodic month, lunar month) of 29.5 Earth days. This is the product of Earth's gravitation having tidal forces, tidally pulled on the Moon until one part of it stopped rotating away from the near side of the Moon, near side, making always the same lunar surface face Earth. Conversley, the gravitational pull of the Moon, on Earth, is the main driver of Earth's tides. In geophysical definition of planet, geophysical terms, the Moon is a planetary-mass object or satellite planet. Its mass is 1.2% that of the Earth, and its diameter is , roughly one-quarter of Earth's (about as wide as the contiguous United States). Within the Solar System, it is the List of Solar System objects by ...
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Terraforming In Popular Culture
Terraforming is well represented in contemporary literature, usually in the form of science fiction, as well as in popular culture.. While many stories involving interstellar travel feature planets already suited to habitation by humans and supporting their own indigenous life, some authors prefer to address the unlikeliness of such a concept by instead detailing the means by which humans have converted inhospitable worlds to ones capable of supporting life through artificial means. History of use Author Jack Williamson is credited with inventing and popularizing the term "terraform". In July 1942, under the pseudonym Will Stewart, Williamson published a science fiction novella entitled "Collision Orbit" in ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Astounding Science-Fiction'' magazine. The series was later published as two novels, ''Seetee Shock'' (1949) and ''Seetee Ship'' (1951).. American geographer Richard Cathcart successfully lobbied for formal recognition of the verb "to ...
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Astounding Science Fiction
''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William Clayton, and edited by Harry Bates. Clayton went bankrupt in 1933 and the magazine was sold to Street & Smith. The new editor was F. Orlin Tremaine, who soon made ''Astounding'' the leading magazine in the nascent pulp science fiction field, publishing well-regarded stories such as Jack Williamson's '' Legion of Space'' and John W. Campbell's "Twilight". At the end of 1937, Campbell took over editorial duties under Tremaine's supervision, and the following year Tremaine was let go, giving Campbell more independence. Over the next few years Campbell published many stories that became classics in the field, including Isaac Asimov's ''Foundation'' series, A. E. van Vogt's '' Slan'', and several novels and stories by Robert A. H ...
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Collision Orbit
The ''Seetee'' series is a golden age science fiction series by the American writer Jack Williamson, under the pseudonym "Will Stewart." The narrative follows a small group of late-22nd century Asteroid Belt colonists who attempt to harness the titular ''seetee'' (a phonetic for "C''ontra''T''errene''", an obsolete term for antimatter), both for the advancement of humanity and to secure the Belt's independence from an authoritarian colonial administration. Publication history The series' constituent stories were originally published as seven installments in ''Astounding Science Fiction''. Six years after the publication of the first three stories, Williamson revisited the setting with ''Seetee Shock'', a novel serialized in ''Astounding'' in early 1949 and released in book form by Simon & Schuster the following year. The second and third stories were subsequently combined into the fix-up ''Seetee Ship'', released in 1951 by Gnome Press
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Jack Williamson
John Stewart Williamson (April 29, 1908 – November 10, 2006) was an American list of science fiction authors, science fiction writer, one of several called the "Dean of Science Fiction". He is also credited with one of the first uses of the term ''genetic engineering''. Early in his career he sometimes used the pseudonyms Will Stewart and Nils O. Sonderlund. Early life Williamson was born April 29, 1908, in Bisbee, Arizona, Bisbee, Arizona Territory. According to his own account, the first three years of his life were spent on a ranch at the top of the Sierra Madre Occidental, Sierra Madre Mountains on the headwaters of the Yaqui River in Sonora, Mexico. He spent much of the rest of his early childhood in western Texas. In search of better pastures, his family migrated to rural New Mexico in a horse-drawn Conestoga wagon, covered wagon in 1915.Williamson, Jack. ''Wonder's Child: My Life in Science Fiction'' (Benbella Books, 2005) The farming was difficult there and the famil ...
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Terraforming Of Venus
The terraforming of Venus or the terraformation of Venus is the hypothetical process of engineering the global environment of the planet Venus in order to make it suitable for human habitation. Adjustments to the existing environment of Venus to support human life would require at least three major changes to the planet's atmosphere: # Reducing Venus's surface temperature of # Eliminating most of the planet's dense carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide atmosphere via removal or conversion to some other form # The addition of breathable oxygen to the atmosphere. These three changes are closely interrelated because Venus's extreme temperature is due to the high pressure of its dense atmosphere and the greenhouse effect. The most simple proposal is to "veil" the planet from the sun, thus dropping the temperature low enough to condense or solidify carbon dioxide which would then need to be removed or stored in some way. History of the idea Poul Anderson, a successful science fictio ...
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Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galaxies – in either observational astronomy, observational (by analyzing the data) or theoretical astronomy. Examples of topics or fields astronomers study include planetary science, Sun, solar astronomy, the Star formation, origin or stellar evolution, evolution of stars, or the galaxy formation and evolution, formation of galaxies. A related but distinct subject is physical cosmology, which studies the Universe as a whole. Types Astronomers typically fall under either of two main types: observational astronomy, observational and theoretical astronomy, theoretical. Observational astronomers make direct observations of Astronomical object, celestial objects and analyze the data. In contrast, theoretical astronomers create and investigate Con ...
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