Over at Centauri Dreams, from which the above image was taken, they’re talking about missions to the outer planets, specially to Haumea. What struck me was how different our understanding of the Solar System is from the classical image of nine planets and some rubble I grew up with. It’s not until you get it all laid out like this that you realise just how different and how much more interesting the Solar System is. So where’s all the science fiction set in it? There’s Paul McAuley’s The Quiet War, now in a nice new US edition, but apart from that I can’t think of any other newish book set in our own system…
Branko Collin
July 26, 2009 at 4:28 pm“What struck me was how different our understanding of the Solar System is from the classical image of nine planets and some rubble I grew up with.”
Heh, try reading a book about biology! (Which is what I am doing now, and I am experiencing the same sense of shock.)
Roobin
July 30, 2009 at 5:27 amIt’s great isn’t it. You don’t have to put too much weight on the subject but it really reinforces the historical in historical materialism. If the solar system really was just 9 planets and dust you could have a smooth orrery with an uneventful natural history. The fact that all the other solar systems we know of do not seem to follow the pattern of ours undermines this model. The discoveries in recent years have merely confirmed this.
One of the most important events is the likely migration of Neptune from inside Uranus to outside, flinging all matter deep into the solar system.
Oh, also, check out the radio signals coming from Saturn.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07966.html