Stars in fiction: Difference between revisions

Supernovae are extremely powerful explosions that some types of stars undergo at the end of their lifecycles.<ref name="GreenwoodStars" /><ref name="StanwayGoingOutWithABang">{{Cite web |last=Stanway |first=Elizabeth |author-link=<!-- No article at present (July 2024); Stanway is an astrophysicist at the University of Warwick who has been published in [[Foundation (journal)]], among others (see https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/research/astro/people/stanway/sciencefiction); Wikidata Q127710708 --> |date=2022-06-12 |title=Going Out with a Bang |url=https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/research/astro/people/stanway/sciencefiction/cosmicstories/going_out_with |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230322094308/https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/research/astro/people/stanway/sciencefiction/cosmicstories/going_out_with/ |archive-date=2023-03-22 |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=[[Warwick University]] |series=Cosmic Stories Blog}}</ref><ref name="TheScienceInScienceFictionStarsNeutronStarsAndBlackHoles" /> The notion that the [[Sun]] might explode in this manner serves as the basis for numerous [[Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction|disaster stories]],<ref name="GreenwoodStars" /><ref name="StanwayGoingOutWithABang" /><ref name="StablefordNova">{{Cite book |last=Stableford |first=Brian |author-link=Brian Stableford |title=[[Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia]] |date=2006 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-97460-8 |pages=334–335 |language=en |chapter=Nova |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uefwmdROKTAC&pg=PA334}}</ref><ref name="SFESun">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2021 |title=Sun |encyclopedia=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]] |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/sun |access-date=2024-06-12 |author1-link=Brian Stableford |editor1-last=Clute |editor1-first=John |edition=4th |author2-last=Langford |author2-first=David |author1-last=Stableford |author1-first=Brian |author2-link=David Langford |editor1-link=John Clute |editor2-last=Langford |editor2-first=David |editor2-link=David Langford |editor3-last=Sleight |editor3-first=Graham |editor3-link=Graham Sleight}}</ref> though it is now recognized that this cannot actually happen as the necessary stellar conditions are not met.{{Efn|Most [[Supernova#Classification|types of supernovae]] result from the [[Stellar core|core]] of a [[Stellar evolution#Massive stars|star far more massive than the Sun]] undergoing [[gravitational collapse]], and the remaining [[type Ia supernova]]e—as well as the less energetic [[nova]]e—result from matter [[Accretion (astrophysics)|accreting]] onto a [[white dwarf]] from a [[Binary star|binary companion]].<ref name="StanwayGoingOutWithABang" />}}<ref name="StanwayGoingOutWithABang" /><ref name="BloomSupernovas">{{Cite book |last=Bloom |first=Steven D. |title=The Physics and Astronomy of Science Fiction: Understanding Interstellar Travel, Teleportation, Time Travel, Alien Life and Other Genre Fixtures |date=2016 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-7053-2 |pages=38–43 |language=en |chapter=Stellar Evolution: Supernovas, Pulsars, and Black Holes |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8NbIDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA38}}</ref> Earth is nevertheless threatened by the radiation from more distant supernovae in several works; for instance, [[Roger MacBride Allen]] and [[Eric Kotani]]'s 1991 novel ''[[Supernova (1991 novel)|Supernova]]'' revolves around the calamitous impact of a supernova in the [[Sirius]] system on Earth, while [[Charles Sheffield]]'s 1998 novel ''[[Aftermath (Sheffield novel)|Aftermath]]'' portrays a supernova in the [[Alpha Centauri]] system disrupting modern electronics on Earth through its [[electromagnetic pulse]].<ref name="GreenwoodStars" /><ref name="FraknoiStars">{{Cite web |last=Fraknoi |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Fraknoi |date=January 2024 |title=Science Fiction Stories with Good Astronomy & Physics: A Topical Index |url=https://astrosociety.org/file_download/inline/7b5edc23-7a89-46c1-a6b3-33a30ed4c876 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240210011957/https://astrosociety.org/file_download/inline/7b5edc23-7a89-46c1-a6b3-33a30ed4c876 |archive-date=2024-02-10 |archive-format=PDF |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=[[Astronomical Society of the Pacific]] |pages=19–21 |format=PDF |edition=7.3}}</ref><ref name="StanwayGoingOutWithABang" /> Besides humans, [[Extraterrestrial intelligence|alien civilizations]] are also subject to the dangers of supernovae in some stories.<ref name="GreenwoodStars" /><ref name="StanwayGoingOutWithABang" /> In [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s 1955 short story "[[The Star (Clarke short story)|The Star]]", an alien species is found to have gone extinct some two millennia ago when their star exploded, creating the biblical [[Star of Bethlehem]].<ref name="GreenwoodStars" /> In [[Poul Anderson]]'s 1967<!-- Stableford gives the year as 1966. This is an error; it was first published in the January 1967 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. --> short story "[[Day of Burning]]" ({{Aka}} "Supernova"), humans try to evacuate a planet inhabited by a pre-spacefaring society threatened by a supernova.<ref name="GreenwoodStars" /><ref name="FraknoiStars" /><ref name="StablefordNova" />

A dying star with mass sufficiently greater than needed to produce a neutron star becomes an even more dense object: a [[black hole]].<ref name="TheScienceInScienceFictionStarsNeutronStarsAndBlackHoles" /><ref name="BloomSupernovas" /><ref name="May2023AFewWordsAboutBlackHoles" /> These objects haveare suchdefined strongby having gravity so strong that nothing—including light—can escape from them.<ref name="TheScienceInScienceFictionStarsNeutronStarsAndBlackHoles" /><ref name="SFEBlackHoles">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2022 |title=Black Holes |encyclopedia=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]] |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/black_holes |access-date=2024-06-30 |edition=4th |author1-last=Stableford |author1-first=Brian |author1-link=Brian Stableford |author2-last=Nicholls |author2-first=Peter |author2-link=Peter Nicholls (writer) |author3-last=Langford |author3-first=David |author3-link=David Langford |editor1-last=Clute |editor1-first=John |editor1-link=John Clute |editor2-last=Langford |editor2-first=David |editor2-link=David Langford |editor3-last=Sleight |editor3-first=Graham |editor3-link=Graham Sleight}}</ref> The principal mechanism of black hole formation is the [[gravitational collapse]] of a [[Stellar evolution#Massive stars|massive star]], but this is not the only theoretically possible mechanism.{{Efn|See e.g. [[Primordial black hole]] and [[Direct collapse black hole]].}} Black holes that form as a result of other processes need not be [[Stellar-mass black hole|stellar-mass]], but can range from [[Micro black hole|microscopic]] to [[Supermassive black hole|supermassive]].<ref name="TheScienceInScienceFictionStarsNeutronStarsAndBlackHoles" /><ref name="BloomSupernovas" /><ref name="May2023AFewWordsAboutBlackHoles">{{Cite book |last=May |first=Andrew |author-link=<!-- No article at present (June 2024); Ph.D. in astrophysics from Manchester University; not one of the people listed at [[Andrew May]] --> |title=How Space Physics Really Works: Lessons from Well-Constructed Science Fiction |publisher=Springer |year=2023 |isbn=978-3-031-33950-9 |series=Science and Fiction |pages=52–56 |language=en |chapter=A Few Words about Black Holes |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-33950-9_2 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zKXIEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA52}}</ref> One role black holes play in fiction is as hazards to spacefarers—in modern science fiction, largely to the exclusion of regular stars serving that function.<ref name="WestfahlStars" /> Another common motif is the use of black holes to traverse vast distances through space quickly, often by serving as the entrance to a [[wormhole]];{{Efn|The special mathematically predicted properties of [[rotating black hole]]s suggest that travellers entering them need not encounter and be destroyed by the [[Gravitational singularity|singularity]] inside;<ref name="TheScienceInScienceFictionStarsNeutronStarsAndBlackHoles" /> astrophysicists [[Steven D. Bloom]] and [[Andrew May (astrophysicist)|Andrew May]] argue that the strong tidal forces would nevertheless invariably be fatal, May pointing specifically to [[spaghettification]].<ref name="BloomSupernovas" /><ref name="May2023AFewWordsAboutBlackHoles" />}} examples include [[Joe Haldeman]]'s 1974 [[fix-up]] novel ''[[The Forever War]]'' and [[Joan D. Vinge]]'s 1980 novel ''[[The Snow Queen (Vinge novel)|The Snow Queen]]''.<ref name="TheScienceInScienceFictionStarsNeutronStarsAndBlackHoles" /><ref name="BloomSupernovas" /><ref name="May2023AFewWordsAboutBlackHoles" /> More exotically, the point of emergence is occasionally portrayed as another point in time—thus enabling [[time travel]]—or even an entirely [[Parallel universes in fiction|different universe]].<ref name="BloomSupernovas" /><ref name="May2023AFewWordsAboutBlackHoles" />