planets in science fiction

The exploration of other worlds is one of the most enduring themes of science fiction. During the first decades of science fiction, Mars was the most common planet and the most romanticized of our solar system whose surface conditions seemed closest to being amenable to life. Percival Lowell's idea about canals of Mars was taken at face value then. Currently Mars is depicted mainly as a target of terraforming. See Mars in fiction for more details on the red planet's numerous roles. During the early-to-mid 20th century, Venus was also a popular subject. Venus is very similar to Earth in its size and surface gravity, and its surface is hidden by a thick cloud layer. Venus was usually depicted as a warm, wet, jungle- and marsh-covered world where life was plentiful, with often thinly-veiled allegories of the European colonization of Africa. Venus is in fact an inhospitable world — the clouds are sulfuric acid, the atmosphere is hundreds of times thicker than Earth's, and the surface temperature could melt lead. See Venus in fiction for more details and particular works.

Fictional planets

Authors have created thousands of fictional planets. Most of them are nearly indistinguishable from Earth, which is why Brian M. Stableford calls them "Earth-Clones". In these, differences with Earth life are mostly social (like Barrayar in the science fiction of Lois McMaster Bujold). More physically unusual planets have been in the hard science fiction books.

Unusual social environment

Typical examples are prison planets, primitive cultures, political or religious extremes and pseudo-medieval societies.

See: Utopia, Dystopia.

Anarres — Ursula K. Le Guin's Dispossessed (anarchist)
Armaghast — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (prison planet)
Athos — Lois McMaster Bujold's Ethan of Athos (male-only society)
Barrayar — Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series (feudal military culture)
Beowulf - David Weber's Honorverse. Very liberal sexual mores.
Brontitall — The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; planet of bird people who live in the ear of a statue after shoe shop disaster.
Cetaganda — Bujold's Vorkosigan series (genetically engineered culture)
Chthon — Piers Anthony's Chthon (prison planet)
Coruscant — Star Wars (planet-wide city, seat of Galactic Republic and Empire)
Dorsai — Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai series (soldier culture)
Gethen/Winter — Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness (hermaphrodites)
Gor — John Norman's Gor series (men are warriors; women are sex-slaves; all are happy in their appointed roles)
Hades - David Weber's Honorverse. Prison planet where none of the native wildlife can metabolized by humans.
Hanon IV — (Primitive culture)
Hebron — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (Jewish ethnic)
Lagash — Isaac Asimov's Famous Short Story "Nightfall" The Planet has a Day That Lasts for thousands of year inhabitants go crazy at nightfall
Magrathea — The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; planet of wealthy customised planet builders.
Orthe — Mary Gentle's Golden Witchbreed (post-holocaust/medieval aliens)
Pacem — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (base of Catholic church)
Parvati — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (reformed Hindus)
Pern — Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series (people ride genetically-engineered dragons)
Qom-Riyadh — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (Moslem)
Rimmerworld Arnold Rimmer of Red Dwarf spends 600 years on a planet by himself. He creates clones of himself (originally to make a girlfriend). The planet is populated by millions of clones who eventually imprison the original Rimmer.
Riverworld — Philip Jos Farmer's Riverworld series (all humans of history)
Rubanis — Valerian series (ultra-capitalist)
Sangre — Norman Spinrad's Men in the Jungle (cannibalism)
Salusa Secundus — from the Dune Chronicles. Nuked-out "hell world" used as a training environment for super-soldiers.
Shikasta — Doris Lessing's Shikasta (cosmic consciousness)
Shora — Joan Slonczewski's A Door into Ocean (waterbound culture)
Solaria — Isaac Asimov's Robot series. People grow up isolated, and eventually lead totally solitary lives, doing all their interactive via telepresence.
Tiamat — Joan D. Vinge's The Snow Queen (matriarchy/monarchy)
Xindus —

Some Fantasy Worlds are also depicted as alien planets.

Unusual physical environment

Typical examples are one-climate planets — deserts, waterworlds, arctic conditions and especially jungles.

Abyormen — Hal Clement's Cycle of Fire (temperature extremes)
Acid — Total Annihilation (Corresive oceans with forests of explosive gasbag plants)
Aquarius — Giant waterworld that caused the Biblical Great Flood. From Final Yamato of the Space Battleship Yamato series.
Arrakis — Frank Herbert's Dune (desert world, sole source of Melange)
Atlantis — Peter F. Hamilton's The Night's Dawn Trilogy (waterworld)
Ballybran — Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer. (toxic world. Inhabitants must form a symbionic relationship with a spore in order to survive.)
Bespin — Star Wars (gas giant with habitable atmospheric layer)
Big Planet — Jack Vance
Core Prime — Total Annihilation (metallic with a gigantic computer at its core and a landfill-covered satellite)
Cybertron — Transformers (Metallic/Mechanical)
Dagobah — Star Wars (swamp, Yoda's hideout)
Dhrawn — Hal Clement's Star Light (high gravity)
Dragon's Egg — Robert Forward (life on neutron star)
Echronedal — Iain M. Banks' The Player of Games (a fire storm forever sweeping round an unbroken equatorial continent)
Ego the Living Planet — Marvel comics (living planet)
Erna — C. S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy (psychically malleable quasi-sentient natural forces)
Far Away — Peter F. Hamilton's Pandora's Star (triangle of stratospheric mountains, sterilized by solar flare, Starflyer alien)
Gamilon/Gamilus — Polluted homeworld of Leader Desslock the Gamilon/Gamilus Empire — Space Battleship Yamato
Garth — David Brin's Uplift War (weird biology)
Giedi Prime — Frank Herbert's Dune series (surface covered in upwelling oil, homeworld of House Harkonnen)
God's Grove — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (forest world,Worldtree)
Grayson — David Weber's Honorverse. Toxic, heavy metal enviroment.
Hekla — Hal Clement's Cold Front (ice age aliens)
Helliconia — Brian Aldiss (seasons last millennia)
Hoth — The Empire Strikes Back (arctic)
Homeworld of The Micronauts, actually a chain of worldlets connected which resembles the ball and stick molecular model.
Htrae — Red Dwarf (a backwards version of Earth).
Hydros — Robert Silverberg's Face of the Waters (waterworld)
Hyperion — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (one of 9 labyrinth planets, Time Tombs)
Ireta - Anne McCaffrey's Planet Pirate series. Inhabited by both people and dinosaurs.
Ishtar — Poul Anderson's Fire Time (periods of intense heat)
Kashyyyk — A forest world caused by a terraforming accident where gigantic trees and furry, sentient Wookiees to maintain them evolved at an accelerated pace, Star Wars (particularly Knights of the Old Republic)
Kharak — Homeworld (desert planet)
Kithrup — David Brin's Startide Rising (waterworld rich in heavy metals, which form part of the biochemical structure of its life. Mildly toxic to non-native life. also the "retirement" home of a neurotic race with enormous psi power)
LV-426 — Aliens
Lamarckia — Greg Bear's Legacy (Lamarckian evolution)
Manaan — Star Wars (ocean)
Majipoor — Robert Silverberg (large planet)
Mare Infinitus — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (waterworld)
Maui-Covenant — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (motile isles)
Medea — Harlan Ellison's worldbuilding project
Mesklin — Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity (superjovian)
Monea — (waterworld)
Mor-Tax — the aliens' true homeworld in the first season of War of the Worlds (described as a garden planet)
Nacre — Piers Anthony's Omnivore
Placet — Fredric Brown's Placet is a Crazy Place
Poseidon — Blue Planet Roleplaying game (ocean world)
Pyrrus — Harry Harrison's Deathworld (high gravity and psychic animals)
Regis III — Stanislaw Lem's Invincible (inorganic evolution)
Resurgam — Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe (desert with buried alien artefacts)
Rocheworld — Robert Forward (double planet)
Smoke Ring — Larry Niven's Integral Trees & Smoke Ring (gas ring around a neutron star)
Sol Draconi Septem — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (glacier covered)
Solaris — Stanislaw Lem's Solaris (living planet)
Star One. A star with a single planet holding the Federation's main computers in Blakes Seven, situated between our galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy. Planet destroyed in an intergalactic war.
Pern — Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern. Deadly spore capable of eating ANYTHING (except rock and metal) rains down on planet for fifty years every 200-400 years.
Tatooine — Star Wars movies (desert world)
Tenebra — Hal Clement's Close to Critical (high gravity and corrosive atmosphere)
Terminal — an artificial planet displaying extreme polar flattening in Blakes Seven.
Thalassa — Arthur C. Clarke's Songs of Distant Earth (waterworld)
T'ien Shan — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (mountain world, toxic surface clouds)
Ursa Minor Beta nearly always Saturday afternoon The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Well World — Jack L. Chalker's Well of Souls series (surface divided in thousands of different ecosystems, each one with a different sentient race)
World of Tiers — Philip Jos Farmer's book series of the same name (world-sized stepped pyramid with a different environment on each step)
Yavin 4 — Fourth moon of the gas giant, Yavin; Rebel Alliance stronghold located in the ruins of an ancient Massassi temple (abandoned long ago) from ""
Yellowstone — Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe, the site of Chasm City and Glitter Band habitats
Zahir — Valerian series (hollow planet)

Other

Aiur — jungle planet in Starcraft the computer game
Altair IV — Forbidden Planet
Ahnooie-4 where spaceman Spiff (Calvin) decides to put a repulsive blob out of its misery
Arisia — E. E. Smith's Lensmen series
Ark — The Strugatsky brothers
Athse — Ursula K. Le Guin's The Word for World is Forest
Bajor — Star Trek
Barsoom — Edgar Rice Burroughs, heroic fantasy version of Mars
Belzagor — Robert Silverberg's Downward to the Earth
The Blue Sands Planet — The Strugatsky brothers
Bog— where Spaceman Spiff (Calvin) avoids pools of toxic chemicals under a choking atmosphere of poisonous gases
Botany — an Earth-like world portrayed in Anne McCaffrey's Freedom series.
Boskone — Smith's Lensmen series
Bothawui — Star Wars cosmopolitan planet of Bothans
Caladan — House Atreides home planet before being ordered to take up occupancy of Arrakis. Herbert's Dune.
Caprica — destroyed home planet of the Battlestar Galactica, one of the 12 home worlds
Centauri Prime — homeworld of the Centauri in the Babylon 5 universe
Cyteen — C. J. Cherryh's Cyteen series
Darkover — Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series (medieval culture and psi powers)
Discworld — not quite a planet, as it's flat and supported by giant elephants
Dragon World — from the anime Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT, Dr. Slump, and Neko Majin Z.
Epsilon 3 — orbited by Babylon 5
Exxilon — Doctor Who episode "Death to the Daleks"
Gallifrey — Doctor Who (main character's home planet)
Garrota — The Strugatsky brothers
Gauda Prime — a planet on which the series Blakes Seven comes to an end.
Giedi Prime — home planet of the Harkonnen Dynasty from Dune
Gloob, above which spaceman Spiff (Calvin) has a malfunction in his hyper freem drive and is blasted with a deadly frap ray by the aliens
Gorgona — The Strugatsky brothers
Harvest — a farm planet in the video game series Halo
Hegira — Greg Bear
Helicon — Home of Psychohistory founder, Hari Seldon in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series
Hiigara — Homeworld (lost Kushan home planet)
Homeworld — Scott Westerfeld's Succession Series (Risen Imperial capital)
Hope — The Strugatsky brothers
Jurai — The seat of the powerful Juraian Empire in the anime Tenchi Muyo.
Kaitan — Frank Herbert's Dune (home of the Padishah Emperors)
Kashyyyk — Star Wars planet of Wookiees
Krypton — Superman
Lar Metaal — Planet which shifts location in space every 1,000 years. Homeworld of Queen Promethium, Maetel and possibly Emeraldas — Galaxy Express 999, Queen Millenia, Maetel Legend
Legis XV — location of Scott Westerfeld's Succession Series
Leonida — The Strugatsky brothers
Lithia — James Blish's Case of Conscience
Lusitania — Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead
Metaluna — This Island Earth
Minbar — homeworld of the Minbari in the Babylon 5 universe
Mok, where spaceman Spiff (Calvin) undergoes water torture (his mother washes his hair)
Mongo — Flash Gordon
Morthrai — destroyed world of the aliens in the second season of War of the Worlds
Narn — homeworld of the Narn in the Babylon 5 universe
Oa — headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps
Pandora — The Strugatsky brothers
Panta — The Strugatsky brothers
The Planet of the Apes — originally a book by Pierre Boulle
Ix — Frank Herbert's Dune (The machine planet)
Plootarg, where Spaceman Spiff (Calvin) crashes after being zorched by a Zarch spacecraft
Q-13 where Spaceman Spiff (Calvin) faces despicable scum beings with his mertilizer beam and mordo blasters
Qo'noS/Kronos — Klingon homeworld in the Star Trek universe
Qar'To — a planet established in the first season of War of the Worlds to be in the same system as that of the invading aliens (Mor-Tax) and has sent a synth to assassinate the Advocacy
Rainbow — The Strugatsky brothers
Reach — a military stronghold planet in the video game series Halo, in the Epsilon Eridani system
Reverie — Bruce Sterling's Artificial Kid
Rigel IV — The Simpsons Home Planet of Kodos & Kang.
Ruzhena — The Strugatsky brothers
Salusa Secundus — Frank Herbert's Dune (prison planet and training ground of the Padishah Emperors' Sardaukar)
Saraksh — The Strugatsky brothers
Saula — The Strugatsky brothers
Skaro — Home planet of the Daleks
Sky's Edge — Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe (Earth-like planet in a perpetual state of war between settler families)
Synnax — Galactic Empire and Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov — The birthplace of Gaal Dornick, it was in a stellar system orbiting a region called the 'blue drift'.
Tagora — The Strugatsky brothers
Terminus - Home of the Foundation in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series
Texlahoma — depressive Earth analogue in Douglas Coupland's novel Generation X
Thyferra — Star Wars
Tirol — Homeworld of the Robotech Masters —Robotech
Tissa — The Strugatsky brothers
Tleilax — Frank Herbert's Dune (home of the Bene Tleilaxu)
Trantor — Galactic Empire and Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov — A planet-wide city
Tralfamadore in the books by Kurt Vonnegut, home to the phlegmatic Tralfamadorians.
Vladislava — The Strugatsky brothers
Vulcan — Star Trek
Wallach IX — in Dune, the home of the Bene Gesserit.
"X" (planet) source of Alludium Phosdex, the shaving cream atom, in Duck Dodgers
X-13 where spaceman Spiff (Calvin) is captured and brought before the Zorg despot
Z'ha'dum — Home of the Shadows in Babylon 5
Zanshaa — Walter Jon Williams's Dread Empire's Fall (Shaa Imperial Capital)
Zark, where spaceman Spiff (Calvin) has several adventures escaping sinister aliens
Zartron-9 home of the awful bug beings who blast spaceman Spiff (Calvin) while he reboots his saucer's computer and tries to recalibrate his weapons
Zog, where spaceman Spiff (Calvin) makes a (very rare) perfect 3 point landing
Zok, where spaceman Spiff (Calvin) is marooned
Zokk, where spaceman Spiff (Calvin) bounds across the landscape given the low gravity
Zorg, where spaceman Spiff (Calvin) sets his gun on deep-fat fry to blast aliens

In addition, some writers and scientists have speculated about artificial worlds or planet-equivalents; see Larry Niven's Ringworld or Freeman Dyson's Dyson sphere.

Books

Neil F. Comins: What if the Moon didn't exist
Stephen Gillette: World-Building (Writer's Digest Books)
Brian Stableford: The Dictionary of Science Fiction Places

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