Vega
in fiction
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Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This
article is about references to the star Vega in fiction. For other uses of the
name Vega, see Vega (disambiguation).
Size
comparison of Vega (on the left), swollen at the equator due to its rapid rate
of rotation, to the Sun
The
planetary systems of stars other than the Sun and the Solar System are a staple
element in much science fiction. Vega (Alpha Lyrae) is a blue-white star in the
constellation Lyra (the lyre, see High Sierra, below) that is frequently
featured in works of science fiction. Like its bright cousins Sirius, Deneb,
and Altair, it is classified as a star of spectral type A. Roughly two and a
half times the size of the Sun, it is 40 times as luminous and, together with
Arcturus and Sirius, one of the most radiant stars in our galactic
neighborhood. Its luminosity joins with its relative proximity to the Earth—it
is only 25 light-years away—to make it the fifth brightest star in the night
sky (see French and English Tragedy by George Croly, below). Vega is rendered
decidedly oblate by its rapid rate of rotation[note 1], and since it is pole-on
to the Sun, it appears significantly larger to earthbound observers than it
actually is. For this and a variety of other reasons Vega has been extensively
studied by astronomers, leading it to be termed "arguably the next most
important star in the sky after the Sun."[3]
Based
on an observed excess emission of infrared radiation, Vega appears to have a
circumstellar disk of dust. This dust is likely to be the result of massive
collisions between objects in an orbiting debris belt, and it is analogous to
the Kuiper belt in the Solar System.[4] Irregularities in the disk also suggest
the presence of at least one planet, about the size of Jupiter, in an orbit
large enough to allow the formation of smaller rocky planets closer to the
star.[5] Regardless of its ultimate tally of planetary companions, the fact
that it has an estimated age of just 455 million years[2] suggests that the
Vega system is too young to have fostered the development of life or a complex
biosphere on any of its worlds.
The
name Wega (later Vega) comes from a loose transliteration of the Arabic word wāqi‘
meaning "falling" or "landing," via the phrase an-nasr
al-wāqi‘, "the falling eagle."[6] The star figures prominently in the
mythology of cultures as diverse as the Polynesian, ancient Greek, Roman,
Chinese (see Qi Xi below), Persian, and Hindu.
General
uses of Vega
Vega
may be referred to in fictional works for its metaphorical (meta) or
mythological (myth) associations, or else as a bright point of light in the sky
of the Earth, but not as a location in space or the center of a planetary
system.
The
Celestial Ford asterism crosses the Milky Way, and every year on the 7th night
of 7th moon it hosts the magpie bridge between Altair and Vega.
Sky position: RA 18h 36.9m, Dec +38° 46.8'
Common designations: Vega, Alpha Lyrae, 3 Lyrae, HIP 91262, HD 172167, HR 7001, Gliese 721
There
follow references to Vega as a location in space or the center of a planetary
system, categorized by genre:
Literature
Foundation (1951), first novel in the
Foundation series by Isaac Asimov. Vega was the capital of the Vega Province in
the Galactic Empire, one of the wealthiest provinces in the entire Galaxy.
Until the revolt of the Anacreon Prefect, it traded with Terminus, capital of
the Foundation. Salvor Hardin, the first mayor of Terminus City, considered the
threat of being cut off from Vega to be one of the gravest perils faced by the
nascent Foundation. One of the commodities Vega exported was tobacco, of
notably high quality.
The Stars My
Destination protagonist Gulliver Foyle jauntes to the Vega system, encircled by
swarms of blazing comets.
Cities in Flight, (1955–1962), series of novels by James Blish. The Vega
system is home to a civilization Blish names the Vegan Tyranny, which is
blocking mankind's expansion into the galaxy. To fulfill their manifest
destiny, men must defeat the Tyranny. The series' reflection of recent (from
the vantage of 1955) earthly events, and the fascistic nature of the Vegan
Tyranny, exhibit Blish's pessimistic view of the cyclic nature of history, as
influenced by his reading of Spengler's The Decline of the West.[12] Blish
later recycled these ideas in his novelization of "Tomorrow is
Yesterday" (1967), an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series.
The Stars My Destination (1956), classic
science fiction novel (titled Tiger! Tiger! in the UK) written by Alfred
Bester. After his apotheosis in the burning cathedral, the legendary Gully
Foyle teleports stark naked to the vicinity of several stars, including Vega:
"Vega in Lyra ... burning bluer than Rigel, planetless, but encircled by
swarms of blazing comets whose gaseous trails scintillated across the
blue-black firmament ..."[13] (see graphic) The interstellar
"jaunting" sequence is typical of Bester's signature pyrotechnics,
his quick successions of hard, bright images, and mingled images of decay and
new life.[14]
Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958),
juvenile novel by Robert A. Heinlein. "Vega V" (its real name is
unpronounceable by humans[note 2][15]) is the home planet of an interstellar
"nanny" civilization assigned to covertly mentor humanity when the
Three Galaxies Federation becomes aware of our existence. Protagonist Kip
Russell has rehabilitated an old space suit that comes in quite handy when he
gets involved in an interplanetary kidnapping scheme. He and fellow victim
Peewee Reisfeld are abducted first to the Moon, and then to Pluto, where he is
seriously injured in their escape. Peewee's companion, the Vegan "Mother
Thing," takes Kip to Vega V to be healed, and later to a tribunal in the
Lesser Magellanic Cloud (see graphic) where he represents the human race.
This Immortal (1966). novel by Roger
Zelazny. In this post-apocalyptic novel, Arts Commissioner Conrad Nomikos—who
may or may not be immortal, and who may or may not be a god—assumes the irksome
task of escorting a Vegan grandee around the ruins of Earth, which is a popular
tourist destination for those among the blue-skinned aliens with a hankering
for primal thrills. The masterfully manipulative "immortal" isn't the
only one with secrets, however; the Vegan harbors dark secrets of his own, and
Earth-liberation rebels are trying to kill him. "Conrad Nomikos ...
resembles Herakles—whose labors the plot of he novel covertly replicates—but is
certainly both the Hero of a Thousand Faces and the Trickster who mocks the
high road of myth..."[21]
Contact (1985), novel written by Carl Sagan
with unacknowledged assistance from Ann Druyan[22] (see also the film Contact
below). SETI researchers detect a message from an extraterrestrial
intelligence—a transmitter array (compare graphic) in orbit around the star
Vega. As signal hunter Ellie Arroway breathlessly proclaims to a colleague over
the telephone: "Yes, Vega is smack in the middle of the field of view. And
we’re getting what looks like prime number pulses…"[23] After an arduous
decoding process, Ellie and her colleagues discover and implement the plans for
a wormhole transport device that carries five explorers to the center of the
galaxy. There they speak at length with supernal sentiences, but can bring back
no proof of the contact—so that when they return home nobody believes their
experiences.
Hyperion (1989) and The Fall of Hyperion
(1990), the first two novels in the Hyperion Cantos written by Dan Simmons.
Martin Silenus, the Poet of the Hyperion tales, survives tortured formative
years growing up in the ambit of the marginally effective Rifkin Atmospheric
Protectorate on Heaven’s Gate, "a minor world circling the star Vega ...
[a] poisonous world [with, however] a farcaster connection to Sol System
..."[24] Too late for poor Martin, Heaven's gate is terraformed by the
Hegemony of Man into an Edenic garden planet, and kept that way in the face of
considerable difficulty thanks to its rich mineral resources—until the collapse
of the farcaster network and the fall of the Hegemony. In the apocalypse,
"...the worst has happened ... The Ousters are invading the Web. Heaven’s
Gate is being destroyed ...".[25] The once beautiful world is reverted by
TechnoCore cybrids posing as Ousters into a smoldering slag heap.
Diaspora (1997), novel by Greg Egan. The
Diaspora in the novel consists of a collection of one thousand exact digital
copies of the Carter-Zimmerman polis (city state), deployed toward stars in all
directions in hopes of improving humankind's understanding of the physics
behind an unpredicted gamma ray burst that wiped out most of Earth's
inhabitants. Vega is one of the target stars, and a C-Z polis encounters alien
life on one of its planets.
Film
and television
"The Cage" (1965; aired 1988),
rejected pilot episode of Star Trek: The Original Series written by Gene
Roddenberry and directed by Robert Butler, as part of the film, television, and
print franchise originated by Gene Roddenberry. The USS Enterprise is traveling
to Vega Colony to arrange care for casualties of the hostilities on Rigel VII,
when it receives a distress transmission broadcast by a scientific expedition
that has vanished on Talos IV. A landing party beams down; the Talosians
capture Captain Christopher Pike and plan to breed him with Vina, an expedition
survivor, to create a race of slaves. Cooler heads prevail.
"Mirror, Mirror" (1967), episode
of Star Trek: The Original Series written by Jerome Bixby and directed by Marc
Daniels. This episode has a transporter mishap swapping Captain Kirk and his
companions with their evil counterparts in a parallel universe. In the
so-called Mirror Universe, the ISS Enterprise is a ship of the Terran Empire, a
dominion as evil as the United Federation of Planets is benevolent. A horrified
Kirk learns that his doppelgänger is guilty of multiple atrocities, including
the massacre of 5000 human colonists on the planet Vega IX.
"One Moment of Humanity" (1976),
episode of the television series Space: 1999 written by Tony Barwick and
directed by Charles Crichton. When the Moon intrudes into the sphere of
influence of the planet Vega, a deputation of Vegans, beautiful to behold,
arrives at Moonbase Alpha to remonstrate, and ends by kidnapping two Alphans to
the Vega system—abetted by telepathic ensnarement and Positronic Transfer. It
turns out that the Vegans are androids, Vega is an artificial paradise planet
and a prison, and the Alphans are able to liberate a human population that has
been enslaved by the robots (compare following item in this article).
Spaceballs (1987), sendup of Star Wars and
other science fiction film classics[26] written by Mel Brooks et al and
directed by Mel Brooks. The planet Spaceball having become uninhabitable due to
an environmental catastrophe, President Skroob first attacks the peaceful
planet Druidia in his own system by attempting to kidnap its princess, Vespa
(compare UFO Robo Grendizer above). "Solo" operator Captain Lone
Starr responds to the offer of a reward and rescues her but his plan is
thwarted when he runs out of fuel and crash-lands on the nearby desert Moon of
Vega. They find their way to a cave occupied by the wise old Yogurt (played by
Brooks), who introduces Lone Starr to the power of "The Schwartz".
The film proceeds in this vein.
Babylon 5 (1993–1998), television series
created by J. Michael Straczynski. The Vega Colony is an outpost world of the Earth
Alliance in the Vega star system, which hosts at least six other planets. Vega
Colony appears frequently in the series as a space voyage destination and as
the location of a medical center; the ice mines on Vega VII were raided for
their explosives by the mad bomber Robert Carlson.
Contact (1997), film written by Carl Sagan
and Ann Druyan, and directed by Robert Zemeckis. (see also the novel Contact
above). SETI researchers detect a message from an extraterrestrial
intelligence—a transmitter array orbiting Vega (compare graphic). After an
arduous decoding process, they first discover, then finance (Panel member: If
you were to meet these Vegans, and were permitted only one question to ask of
them, what would it be?[27]) and finally implement the plans for a wormhole
transport device that carries a single explorer (Ellie, played by Jodie Foster)
to the center of the galaxy. There she speaks at length with a supernal
sentience who manifests itself as her departed father, but she can bring back
no proof of the contact—so that when she returns home few people believe her
experiences actually happened.
See
also
Vega
is referred to as a location in space or the center of a planetary system
unusually often in fiction. For a list containing many stars and planetary
systems that have a less extensive list of references, see Stars and planetary
systems in fiction.
Notes
and references
Notes
Vega rotates with a period of about 12.5
hours,[1] which is 87.6% of the speed that would cause the star to start
breaking up from centrifugal effects.[2]
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