Tau Ceti
Encyclopedia : T : TA : TAU : Tau Ceti
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In 2004 a team of UK astronomers led by Jane Greaves discovered that Tau Ceti has more than ten times the amount of cometary and asteroidal material orbiting it than the Sun does. This was determined by measuring the disc of cold dust orbiting the star produced by collisions between such small bodies. This result puts a damper on the possibility of complex life in this system, as planets there would suffer from large impact events roughly ten times more frequently than Earth. However, it is possible that a large Jupiter-sized gas giant could deflect comets and asteroids. On the bright side, this does tip the scales in favour of the star having planets. Also, the cometary and asteroidal material could be used to construct artificial habitats for human colonization.
Tau Ceti can be seen with the unaided eye as a faint star in the constellation of Cetus.
In fiction
Several science fiction novels and other media are set on or around a habitable planet orbiting Tau Ceti, of which the following is a sample.
- In Isaac Asimov's Robot and Foundation novels, the planet Aurora and its two asteroidal satellites orbit Tau Ceti.
- In Robert A. Heinlein's novel Time For the Stars, the flagship Elsie encounters a few planets, and an Earth type planet, that they name "Constance". It is later colonized.
- In the Viagens Interplanetarias stories of L. Sprague de Camp its system contains the inhabited planets of Vishnu, Krishna and Ganesha, the second of these being the setting of his novels The Queen of Zamba, The Hand of Zei, The Hostage of Zir, The Virgin of Zesh, The Tower of Zanid, The Prisoner of Zhamanak, The Bones of Zora, and ''The Swords of Zinjaban.
- In the film version of Barbarella, the decadent city of Sogo is on a planet in the Tau Ceti system.
- In Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series this is the home star of the invading aliens known as The Race.
- In Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga series, Tau Ceti is occupied by a race of humanoids known as Tau Cetans
- In the MMORPG EVE Online, the Gallentean race is said to be descended from people of French origin from the Tau Ceti system.
- In the Marathon game trilogy, Tau Ceti IV is the location of a human colony, about which the colony ship U.E.S.C. Marathon orbits.
- In the computer game System Shock 2, Tau Ceti V was where the starship Von Braun travelled on its maiden voyage. It was also the source of the invasion on the ship by both the AI SHODAN and the SHODAN-created lifeforms, the Annelids, which evolved into The Many.
- Pete Cooke's 1985 ZX Spectrum computer game Tau Ceti, published by CRL, was set on an airless planet orbiting the star. [link]
- In Larry Niven's Known Space series, the human colony of Plateau orbited Tau Ceti.
- In Dan Simmon's Hyperion Cantos, Tau Ceti is orbited by Tau Ceti Center, capital of the Hegemony of Man.
- In The Powers of Matthew Starr, the planet Quadris is identified as being a planet of Tau Ceti.
- In Brian Antoine's online serial novella Tales of the Family nas Kan, a sci-fi/magic-based society of anthropomorphic animals inhabits a planet in the Tau Ceti system. See also furry fandom.
- In Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed, the action takes place in a fictional double planet system orbiting Tau Ceti. The two planets are called Anarres and Urras.
- In Gene Roddenberry's [[Earth: Final Conflict]], the warlike Jaridian species is referred to as having its main stronghold at Tau Ceti.
- In Alan Moore's Skizz, Interpreter Zhcchz from Tau Ceti crash-lands outside Birmingham.
- In C.J. Cherryh's Hugo Award-Winning novel Downbelow Station, the space station referenced in the book's title (Pell Station) orbits a planet in the Tau Ceti system inhabited by the alien Hisa race.
- In Julian May's Galactic Milieu trilogy, Tau Ceti is orbited by the planet Molakar, inhabited by the alien race Krondaku, and destroyed in the Metapsychic Rebellion
- Samuel R. Delany's Empire Star starts on a habitable moon circling a planet of Tau Ceti.
- In the [[Star Trek: The Next Generation]] episode "Remember Me", the alien known as The Traveler is said to come from Tau Ceti. This information, however, contradicts the statement made in the episode "Where No One Has Gone Before" that The Traveler came from Tau Alpha C.
- In Frank Herbert's novel [[Destination: Void]], Tau Ceti is the destination of the ship, precisely because it was known to have no planets. The planet created by the Ship around Tau Ceti may or may not be the setting of the Pandora Series of novels by Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom (The Jesus Incident, The Lazarus Effect, and The Ascension Factor).
- In the television series Doctor Who Tau Ceti is mentioned at least twice. In The Stones of Blood and Terror of the Zygons the planets Ogros and Zygor are said to orbit Tau Ceti.
- In David Braben's computer game Frontier, Tau Ceti is orbited by the habitable, Earth-like world Taylor Colony that is densely populated, the system is a member of the Federation.
References
- Greaves, J. S. et al, "The debris disc around tau Ceti: a massive analogue to the Kuiper Belt", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 351, Issue 3, 07/2004.
See also
External links
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