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| Mesklin |
MesklinMesklin is the name of a fictional superjovian planet created by Hal Clement and used in a number of his stories.
It is distinctive for its highly variable gravity
(3G at the equator, 665G at the poles according to his original calculations).
The planet first appeared in his series of short stories in Astounding Science Fiction (April-July 1953), which were later converted into the novel Mission of Gravity.
Other fictional works using the planet or its denizens include
"Under", "Lecture Demonstration", and Star Light; the book
Heavy Planet is a collection of Mesklin-related works by Clement.
Clement described the basic characteristics of Mesklin in the article "Whirligig World" in Astounding Science Fiction (June 1953). He based the world on an object then thought to exist in the 61 Cygni system, which had been detected by analysis of the motion of the two already known stars in the system.
Unfortunately, further analysis, with more extensive data, led to the conclusion that the find had been erroneous [http://www.solstation.com/stars/61cygni2.htm]. Had the discovery held up, the object would have been one of the very first extrasolar planets to be discovered, decades before the first flurry of well-established discoveries around the turn of the third millennium.
Clement decided that, since its mass was 16 times that of Jupiter, Mesklin would have an extremely large spin rate
to partly counter its gravity
(e.g., to allow humans to visit part of Mesklin).
Clement wanted the equatorial gravity to be 3G, so he determined the spin rate
necessary to make this occur: each Mesklin day is 17.75 minutes long (the planet rotates approximately 20 degrees a minute).
As a result of this extremely large rate of spin, Mesklin is not even slightly spherical; it has a large equatorial bulge.
Mesklin's equatorial diameter is 48,000 miles, while from pole-to-pole along its axis of rotation it is 19,740 miles.
Clement then attempted to calculate the polar gravity, but this was
surprisingly difficult. He admits, "To be perfectly frank, I don't know the exact value of the polar gravity; the planet is so oblate that the usual rule of spheres... would not even be a good approximation..." "Whirligig World" reports his initial calculations of the pole gravity to be 655G, the paper jacket of Heavy Planet reports the pole gravity as 700G, and a later program created by Clement computed it as 275G.
Clement also gave Mesklin a set of rings and massive moons.
The inner moon is 90,000 miles from the planet's center,
with a period of 2 hours 8 minutes.
He determined Mesklin's orbit around its sun (which Clement decided would be 61 Cygni A) took 1800 Earth-days, and is highly elliptical; at its closest point the average temperature would be -50C, while at the furthest its average temperature would be -180C. Since the orbit is eccentric it moves
rapidly past its sun at the closest point, so its temperature would be
around -170C most of the time.
Clement decided that this imaginary world would have native life-forms,
that they would be based on methane (CH4), and that there would be oceans of methane. Unfortunately, methane has a low boiling point, suggesting that Mesklin's sun might boil its oceans and cause the methane to escape the planet entirely. Thus, Clement arranged the planet so that its northern hemisphere's midsummer occurs when it is nearest its sun. Thus, the northern hemisphere would develop a large frozen methane cap during most of its year; the southern hemisphere (where most creatures live) is protected from the sun's closest approach by the rest of the planet. He also asserted that the planet would have a fairly rapid precession.
In "Whirligig World", Clement stated that he gave "official permission
to anyone who so desires to lay scenes there [in Mesklin]. I ask only that he maintain reasonable scientific standards, and that's certainly an elastic requirement in the field of science fiction."
Mesklin, "Whirligig World", and the Clement stories based on them
are important in science fiction because they illustrated how to
carefully incorporate all known (at the time) scientific facts into
an interesting setting, which could then be used as a basis to create interesting stories.
They were also the first stories set outside the solar system on a planet believed (then) actually to exist.
See also Hard science fiction.
- Clement, Hal. 2002. Heavy Planet. ISBN 0739432915.
Category:Fictional planets
Planets in science fictionThe 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 Martian canals 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 90 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 depicted in hard science fiction books. For the Star Trek universe, a detailed [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Planetary_classification planetary classification system] has been devised.
Unusual social environment
Typical examples are prison planets, primitive cultures, political or religious extremes and pseudo-medieval societies.
:See: Utopia, Dystopia.
- Aka — Ursula K. Le Guin's The Telling (hyper scientific advancement)
- 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 — The Star Wars films (planet-wide city, seat of Galactic Republic and Empire)
- Crete — Freelancer
- Dorsai — Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai series (soldier culture)
- Gauda Prime — Appears in the last episode of Blake's Seven, being where one of the characters originates, and where the series' eponymous character is residing. A planet overrun with bounty hunters and the scum of the galaxy - but some of whose inhabitants wish to return it to normality (and the Federation).
- Gethen/Winter — Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness (hermaphrodites)
- Gork
- Gor — John Norman's Gor series (men are warriors; women are often sex-slaves; all are generally happy in their appointed roles)
- Hades — David Weber's Honorverse. Prison planet where none of the native wildlife can be metabolized by humans.
- Hain — Central planet in Ursula K. Le Guin's Hainish series.
- Hebron — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (Jewish ethnic)
- Houston — Freelancer
- Irk (Invader Zim)
- Leeds — Freelancer, a heavily polluted planet.
- Magrathea — The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (planet of wealthy customised planet builders)
- Mejerr — Vandread (female-only society)
- Miranda — Serenity (site where Alliance accidentally spawned the Reavers)
- Nark A charlie planet
- Omega — Robert Sheckley's The Status Civilization (a prison planet)
- 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 alone on this planet, creating clones of himself in a failed attempt to create a girlfriend. The planet is eventually populated by millions of clones who imprison the original Rimmer.
- Riverworld — Philip José Farmer's Riverworld series (all humans in history reincarnated along a spiral river)
- Rubanis — Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent 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, interacting only via telepresence.
- Talark — Vandread (male-only society)
- Terminus - Foundation; Isaac Asimov
- Tiamat — Joan D. Vinge's The Snow Queen (matriarchy/monarchy)
- Yugopotamia (The Fairly Oddparents)
- Xindus — Star Trek: Enterprise (six distinct sentient species)
- Zycos A charlie planet.
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 planet — Total Annihilation (Corresive oceans with forests of explosive gasbag plants)
- Aether — Metroid Prime 2, planet with two parallel dimensions
- Aquarius — Giant waterworld that caused the Biblical Great Flood. From Final Yamato of the Space Battleship Yamato series.
- Aquas — Small waterworld in the Lylat System, setting of the video games in Nintendo's StarFox 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.)
- Baloris Prime — A planet from the PC game 'Descent II' which was mostly desert (according to the writers of the game this was because its axis of rotation was exactly perpendicular to its plane of orbit, causing a total lack of seasons on the surface of the planet.
- Bespin — Star Wars (gas giant with habitable atmospheric layer)
- Big Planet — Jack Vance
- Chaos — Exosquad (the tenth planet of the Solar System, composed entirely of dark matter)
- Core Prime — Total Annihilation (metallic with a gigantic computer at its core and a landfill-covered satellite)
- Crematoria — The Chronicles of Riddick movie (periods of intense heat)
- Cybertron — Transformers series (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)
- Endor — the forest-moon in Return of the Jedi
- 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)
- Fortuna — Small planet in StarFox 64, it is a world similar to Hoth
- 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 environment.
- 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)
- Jinx — Larry Niven's Known Space universe (high gravity and extreme vertical scale)
- Kamino — Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (ocean)
- Kashyyyk — Star Wars, particularly Knights of the Old Republic (forest world caused by a terraforming accident, where gigantic trees and furry, sentient Wookiees to maintain them evolved at an accelerated pace)
- Kharak — Homeworld (desert planet) destroyed by an enemy race after space travel is developed
- 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)
- Lagash — Isaac Asimov's Nightfall (planet where each day lasts two thousand years)
- Lamarckia — Greg Bear's Legacy (Lamarckian evolution)
- LV-426 — Aliens
- 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 — Star Trek: Voyager (waterworld)
- Mor-Tax — the aliens' homeworld in the first season of War of the Worlds (described as a garden planet)
- Nacre — Piers Anthony's Omnivore
- Namek and New Namek — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball (temperate land where trees are scarce, but water and grass abondant)
- Pittsburgh — Freelancer (desert, populated with mining operations).
- Placet — Fredric Brown's Placet is a Crazy Place
- Plateau/Mt. Lookitthat — Larry Niven's Known Space universe (Venus-like with only a small high plateau habitable; colonized by mistake)
- Poseidon — Blue Planet Roleplaying game (ocean world)
- Pyrrus — Harry Harrison's Deathworld (high gravity and psychic animals)
- Regis III — Stanisław Lem's Invincible (inorganic evolution)
- Resurgam — Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe (desert with buried alien artefacts)
- Rocheworld — Robert Forward (double planet that almost touches)
- The 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 — Stanisław Lem's Solaris (Mostly covered by living ocean)
- Star One - a star with a single planet holding the Federation's main computers in Blake's 7, 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)
- Tallon IV — Metroid Prime. All life on planet was horribly mutated following the crash of a toxic asteroid.
- Tenebra — Hal Clement's Close to Critical (high gravity and corrosive atmosphere)
- Terminal — an artificial planet displaying extreme polar flattening in Blake's 7.
- Thalassa — Arthur C. Clarke's Songs of Distant Earth (waterworld)
- T'ien Shan — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (mountain world, toxic surface clouds)
- Tycho Brahe — From Descent II, a spaceship the size and shape of a planet, mistaken for one until its two hemispheres actually separated to reveal a mechanical interior (metallic/mechanical)
- Ursa Minor Beta nearly always Saturday afternoon The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Venom — Largest and closest orbiting planet of the Lylat System, setting of the games in Nintendo's StarFox series, bearing an extremely toxic atmosphere and therefore a highly desolate surface. In some versions of the backstory, Venom was previously called Edena because it was supposedly covered almost entirely with forest, possibly evergreen, before Andross was exiled there, suggesting it may have also been a prison planet.
- Vladislava — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe (extremely turbulent atmosphere)
- 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 José 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 Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
- Yellowstone — Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe, the site of Chasm City and Glitter Band habitats
- Zahir — Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent series (hollow planet)
- Zeelich, a planet in Little Big Adventure 2. It is covered by a thick layer of gas clouds and beneath lies a sea of lava. Vegetation and civilisation is recurrent only on mountains above the cloud layer.
Zyrgon, a icebound planet in "Halfway across the galaxy and turn left"
- Zoness — A planet that once was nearly all tropical in its climate, and home to many island resorts in StarFox's Lylat System, the whole planet was turned into a toxic waste dump by the forces of Andross according to the storyline of StarFox 64, turning its once beautiful oceans into seas of corrosive poison and its atmosphere into a caustic cloud of deadly vapors.
Living/sentient planets
- Petaybee, from the Petaybee Series (Powers series) by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Scarborough
- Gaea, a sentient artificial space habitat, from the Gaea Trilogy (Titan, Wizard & Daemon) by John Varley.
- Zonama Sekot living world from the Star Wars expanded universe.
- Pandarve, from the Storm comic books, is not only alive, but also has the status of a goddess
- Mogo, from the Green Lantern Corps comic books, is not only alive, but also an appointed member of the corps.
Other
- Acheron — aka LV-426 the planet on which the derelict ship and its deadly cargo are found in the movies Alien and Aliens
- Aiur — jungle planet in Starcraft the computer game
- Altair IV — Forbidden Planet formerly inhabited by mysteriously extinct race
- Ahnooie-4 where Spaceman Spiff (Calvin) decides to put a repulsive blob out of its misery
- Arisia — E. E. Smith's Lensmen series
- Ark — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe
- Arlia — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
- Astra — A Marvel Universe planet where humanoid aliens possess magnetic and molecule-controlling powers that enable them to have every power on metal
- 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 and into Conrad's Heart of Darkness
- The Blue Sands Planet — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky
- 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. Frank Herbert's Dune.
- Calafia — Water world in David Brin's Uplift universe, inhabited by humans and neo-dolphins. Currently occupied by the Soro.
- Caprica — destroyed home planet of the Battlestar Galactica, one of the 12 home worlds
- Corneria — home planet for the Fox Team in the Star Fox video game series
- Covenant — Scottish-ethnic world in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History. Known for its mercenaries specializing in infantry.
- Centauri Prime — homeworld of the Centauri in the Babylon 5 universe
- Churchill — English-ethnic world in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History.
- Cyteen — C. J. Cherryh's Cyteen series
- Darkover — Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series (medieval culture and psi powers)
- The Discworld — not quite a planet, as it's flat and supported by giant elephants
- Deemi — World in David Brin's Uplift Universe leased to humans on the condition that they run the Galactic prison. Bathed in UV radiation. Most of biosphere is aquatic.
- Dragon World — the Earth from the anime Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dr. Slump, and Neko Majin Z.
- Dayan or Dyan — Israeli-ethnic world in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History.
- Epsilon 3 — orbited by Babylon 5
- Expel — where much of the action of Star Ocean: The Second Story occurs
- Exxilon — Doctor Who serial Death to the Daleks
- Fortuna — Planet of the Star Fox video game series; the "dinosaur planet".
- Freeza Planet 79 — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
- Frystaat — Afrikaaner-ethnic world in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History.
- Gallifrey — Doctor Who (main character's home planet)
- Garrota — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe
- Garissa — Planet in Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy that is anti-matter bombed and rendered uninhabitable.
- Gauda Prime — a planet on which the series Blake's 7 comes to an end.
- Giedi Prime — home planet of the Harkonnen Dynasty from Dune
- Giganda — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe
- Gloob — above which Spaceman Spiff, Calvin from the comic (Calvin and Hobbes), has a malfunction in his hyper freem drive and is blasted with a deadly frap ray by the aliens
- Gorgona — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky
- The Great Kai Planet — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
- 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 — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe
- Jean — colony planet in the Freefall comic
- Jijo — Planet in Galaxy #4 where Humans and other sophont refugees have illegally hidden, in the case of the G'kek and the Humans to avoid extermination, potential for humanity, certain for G'kek.
- Jobis — A Kiint world with three artificial moons from Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy.
- Jophekka — In David Brin's Uplift Universe, the homeworld of the Jophur, sapient and ambitious sap ring stacks.
- Jurai — The seat of the powerful Juraian Empire in the anime Tenchi Muyo.
- Kaitan — Frank Herbert's Dune (home of the Padishah Emperors)
- Kanassa — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
- Koosebane — weird planet in The Muppet Show
- Kosmos — A planet in the Marvel Universe from which a criminal sludge-like alien escapes to hide on Earth where he kills The Wasp's father and fights Ant-Man
- Klendathu — bugs homeplanet in Robert A. Heinlein Starship Troopers
- 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
- Manhattan, London, Tokyo and Berlin — Freelancer. Most places in this game are named after Earth places, such as the planet Stuttgart, the New York system, or the Detroit asteroid field.
- Leonida — Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Noon Universe
- Lithia — James Blish's Case of Conscience
- Londinum — Co-capital world (Anglo-American) of the Alliance in Joss Whedon's Firefly universe.
- Lusitania — Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead
- MacBeth — planet from the Star Fox video game series
- Meiji — Japanese-ethnic world in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Future History.
- 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)
- Mondas — home planet of the [[Cyberman
Planet
A planet is generally considered to be a relatively large mass of accreted matter in orbit around a star that is not a star itself. The name comes from the Greek term πλανήτης, planētēs, meaning "wanderer", as ancient astronomers noted how certain lights moved across the sky in relation to the other stars. Based on historical consensus, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) lists nine planets in our solar system. Since the term "planet" has no precise scientific definition, however, many astronomers contest that figure. Some say it should be lowered to eight by removing Pluto from the list, whilst others claim it should be raised to fifteen, twenty, or even higher.
Planetary formation
It is not known with certainty how planets are formed. The prevailing theory is that they are formed from those remnants of a nebula that don't condense under gravity to form a protostar. Instead, these remnants become a thin disc of dust and gas revolving around the protostar and begin to condense about local concentrations of mass within the disc. These concentrations become ever more dense until they collapse inward under gravity to form protoplanets. When the protostar has grown such that it ignites to form a star, its solar wind blows away most of the disc's remaining material. Thereafter there still may be many protoplanets orbiting the star or each other, but over time many will collide, either to form a single larger planet or release material for other larger protoplanets or planets to absorb. Meanwhile, protoplanets that have avoided collisions may become moons of larger planets.
With the discovery and observation of planetary systems around stars other than our own, it is becoming possible to elaborate, revise or even replace this account.
Within our solar system
Main article: Solar system
The process of naming planets and their features is known as planetary nomenclature. All the currently accepted planets in the solar system are named after Roman gods, except for Uranus (named after a Greek god) and the Earth, which was not seen as a planet by the ancients but rather the centre of the universe. The designated planetary names are near-universal in the Western world, but some non-European languages, such as Chinese, use their own. Moons are also named after gods and characters from classical mythology, or, in the case of Uranus, after Shakespearean characters. Asteroids can be named after anybody or anything at the discretion of their discoverers, subject to approval by the IAU's nomenclature panel.
Accepted planets
Asteroid
According to the authority of the IAU, there are nine planets in our solar system. In increasing distance from the Sun they are:
#Mercury (astronomical symbol )
#Venus ()
#Earth () with one confirmed natural satellite, Luna (the Moon)
#Mars () with two confirmed natural satellites, Deimos and Phobos
#Jupiter () with sixty-three confirmed natural satellites
#Saturn () with forty-six confirmed natural satellites
#Uranus (Uranus) with twenty-seven confirmed natural satellites
#Neptune () with thirteen confirmed natural satellites
#Pluto () with three confirmed natural satellites (Charon, S/2005 P 1, S/2005 P 2)
However, there is some pressure for Pluto to be reclassified as a Kuiper Belt object, especially in light of the discovery of . This object, however, has not yet received a definitive classification from the IAU.
Other candidates
When Ceres was found orbiting between Mars and Jupiter in 1801, it was initially touted as a planet, but after many smaller objects were found with a similar orbit, it was classified as an asteroid. However, due to its large size (relative to the other asteroids), and its roughly spherical shape, Ceres would be considered a planet by some astronomers' definitions.
Similarly, since 1992 many objects have been found in the predicted Kuiper Belt that exists beyond Neptune. Several of the largest of these have challenged the planetary status quo, as they are both spherical and larger than the bodies in the Mars-Jupiter asteroid belt, and are similar in size, orbit and composition to Pluto. However, as yet none have been accepted as planets by the IAU. The most significant of these are (in order of increasing distance from the Sun) 90482 Orcus, , 50000 Quaoar, , , 28978 Ixion, 20000 Varuna, 19521 Chaos, and 90377 Sedna. (However, it should be noted that Sedna is often considered to be beyond the Kuiper Belt; being either a member of the scattered disc or the inner Oort Cloud).
Like Ceres before it, Sedna was widely touted as a planet when it was discovered in 2003, as it was the largest object found since Pluto. However, mainly due to its size still being smaller than Pluto's, it did not achieve planetary status from the IAU. However, the discovery in 2005 of (nicknamed Xena), with a size and mass larger than Pluto seems to have forced the issue. As of September 2005 it has not yet been accepted as a planet, but the IAU is expected to announce a definition of a planet by the end of the year, which will either see become a planet, or have Pluto stripped of its status.
Extrasolar planets
:Main article: Extrasolar planet.
Of the 173 extrasolar planets (those outside our solar system) discovered to date (October 2005) most have masses which are about the same or larger than Jupiter's.
Exceptions include a number of planets discovered orbiting burned-out star remnants called pulsars, such as PSR B1257+12, the planets orbiting the stars Mu Arae, 55 Cancri and GJ 436 which are approximately Neptune-sized [http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2004/pr-22-04_pf.html], and a planet orbiting Gliese 876 that is estimated to be about 6 to 8 times as massive as the Earth and is probably rocky in origin.
It is far from clear if the newly discovered large planets would resemble the gas giants in our solar system or if they are of an entirely different type as yet unknown, like ammonia giants or carbon planets. In particular, some of the newly discovered planets, known as hot Jupiters, orbit extremely close to their parent stars, in nearly circular orbits. They therefore receive much more stellar radiation than the gas giants in our solar system, which makes it questionable whether they are the same type of planet at all. There is also a class of hot Jupiters that orbit so close to their star that their atmospheres are slowly blown away in a comet-like tail: the Chthonian planets.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States has a program underway to develop a Terrestrial Planet Finder artificial satellite, which would be capable of detecting the planets with masses comparable to terrestrial planets. The frequency of occurrence of these planets is one of the variables in the Drake equation which estimates the number of intelligent, communicating civilizations that exist in our galaxy.
Astronomers have recently [http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050711/full/050711-6.html] [http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2005-115] detected a planet in a triple star system, a finding that challenges current theories of planetary formation. The planet, a gas giant slightly larger than Jupiter, orbits the main star of the HD 188753 system, in the constellation Cygnus, and is hence known as HD 188753 Ab. The stellar trio (yellow, orange, and red) is about 149 light-years from Earth. The planet, which is at least 14% larger than Jupiter, orbits the main star (HD 188753 A) once every 80 hours or so (3.3 days), at a distance of about 8 Gm, a twentieth of the distance between Earth and the Sun. The other two stars whirl tightly around each other in 156 days, and circle the main star every 25.7 years at a distance from the main star that would put them between Saturn and Uranus in our own Solar System. The latter stars invalidate the leading hot Jupiter formation theory, which holds these planets form at "normal" distances and then migrate inward through some debatable mechanism. This could not have occurred here, the outer star pair disrupting outer planet formation.
Brown dwarf "planets"
The discovery of a planet-sized satellite of a brown dwarf has blurred the distinction between "planet" and "moon." A brown dwarf, though a star in theory, in practice is often described as in between a planet and a star. It is formally defined by the IAU by its official statement that "Substellar objects with true masses above the limiting mass for thermonuclear fusion of deuterium are "brown dwarfs", no matter how they formed nor where they are located."
To the IAU, the question of whether an object in orbit around a brown dwarf is a "planet" or a "moon" was simply not relevant, as it does not use the term "moon," only "satellite" and as yet has no official definition for "planet."
Interstellar planets
Interstellar planets are rogues in interstellar space, not gravitationally linked to any given solar system. No interstellar planet is known to date, but their existence is considered a likely hypothesis based on computer simulations of the origin and evolution of planetary systems, which often include the ejection of bodies of significant mass.
Such objects are not formally called planets, however, since the IAU has not defined the term "planet".
Definition and classification of planets
Much like "continent", "planet" is a word without a precise definition, with history and culture playing as much of a role as geology and astrophysics. Recent definitions have been vague and imprecise; The American Heritage Dictionary, for instance, formerly defined a planet as:
:A nonluminous celestial body larger than an asteroid or comet, illuminated by light from a star, such as the sun, around which it revolves. In the solar system there are nine known planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.'
However, for some time that definition has been viewed by many as inadequate. The eight largest planets (which are also the eight nearest to the Sun) are universally recognised as such, and for this reason are often universally referred to as "major planets", but there is controversy over Pluto and other smaller objects.
Suggested wide definitions
Since the discoveries of many of the objects in the Kuiper belt and around other stars, there has been a concerted push amongst scientists to come up with a precise definition of what constitutes a planet. In 1999, the IAU set up a working group to develop a scientifically plausible recommendation, but as of August, 2005 they had not reached a conclusion. After the discovery of (informally called "Xena"), a member of the committee, Alan Stern, has said that the group wanted "to get something done, pronto". He also informed journalists that a "consensus" in the group was moving towards the following definition:
:A planet is a body that directly orbits a star, is large enough to be round because of self gravity, and is not so large that it triggers nuclear fusion in its interior.
Note that this definition also covers disputes at the upper end of a planet's size, which provides the extra benefit of forming a barrier between planets and brown dwarfs. Many consider this definition the best option as it sets up divisions based on physical characteristics rather than an arbitrary size limit. It is also somewhat universal in its application where other definitions have been crafted mainly to sort our own solar system into simple categories (such as placing the size limit as just under Mars, Mercury or Pluto). Depending how it is interpreted, objects counted as planets under such a new system would include some or all of the objects listed above, with potentially many more yet to be found.
Gibor Basri, head of astronomy at the University of Berkeley, has suggested a similar definition and has also proposed the terms "fusor" (any object that achieves fusion in its core) and "planemo" (an object that is round from self-gravity but not a fusor) to help improve the astronomical nomenclature. Under Basri's definition:
:A planet is a planemo orbiting a fusor
These definitions have the advantage of creating a group including larger moons (which share many characteristics with the smaller planets) and also covering large free-roaming objects, which some astronomers think should be included in the definition of a planet. Basri has also suggested 'liberal use of adjectives' such as "major", "beltway", "dwarf", "giant", "super" and "historical".[http://astron.berkeley.edu/%7Ebasri/defineplanet/Mercury.htm] Others have suggested categories of planet/planemo based on composition such as "rock" (composed mainly of silicate), "gas" (composed mainly of hydrogen and helium), and "ice" (composed mainly of oxygen and carbon).
Suggested narrow definitions
There are alternate suggestions which would instead reduce the number of planets in the system. Upon his discovery of Sedna, Mike Brown of Caltech suggested a definition which would exclude both Sedna and Pluto from being classified as planets, proposing the following:
:A planet is any body in the solar system that is more massive than the total mass of all of the other bodies in a similar orbit [http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/sedna/#What%20is%20the%20definition%20of%20a%20planet?]
This definition generally plays down the importance of size, but instead focuses on the formation of the proposed planet. Under this definition, no Kuiper Belt objects (including Pluto) would be considered planets.
Brown's wish to "demote" Pluto prompted many to criticize him for setting out to create a purely scientific definition for a term which had an existing popular (albeit 'flawed') application. Upon his discovery of , Brown indicated he had become a convert to this way of thinking, and proposed that whatever definition of planet be adopted, it should include both Pluto and any Kuiper Belt object found to be larger than Pluto. [http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/planetlila/index.html]
Further classification
Astronomers distinguish between minor planets, such as asteroids, comets, and trans-Neptunian objects; and major (or true) planets.
Planets within Earth's solar system can be divided into categories according to composition.
- Terrestrial or rocky: Planets that are similar to Earth — with bodies largely composed of rock: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
- Jovian or gas giant: Those with a composition largely made up of gaseous material: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Uranian planets, or ice giants, are a sub-class of gas giants, distinguished from true Jovians by their depletion in hydrogen and helium and a significant composition of rock and ice.
- Icy: Sometimes a third category is added to include bodies like Pluto, whose composition is primarily ice; this category of "icy" bodies also includes many non-planetary bodies such as the icy moons of the outer planets of our solar system (e.g. Triton).
Many consider the Earth and its Moon to be a double planet, for several reasons:
- The Moon, as measured by its diameter, is 1.5 times larger than Pluto.
- The gravitational force of the Sun on the Moon is larger than the gravitational force of the Earth on the Moon by a factor of approx. 2.2. (This is not a unique situation in the solar system. The Sun's gravity is also stronger than the primary's on Jupiter's moon S/2003 J 2; Uranus' moon S/2001 U 2; Neptune's moons S/2002 N 4 and Psamathe; and several asteroid moons. However, Luna is the sole case of this phenomenon affecting an object of planetary mass.)
See also
- Definition of planet
- Planetary habitability
- Planetary science
- Planemo
- Planetoid
- Brown Dwarf
- Planets in science fiction
- Prograde and retrograde motion
- Skies of other planets
References
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External links
- [http://www.nineplanets.org/ NinePlanets.org] - tour of the solar system
- [http://www.iau.org International Astronomical Union]
- [http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Solar/ Solar System Live] (an interactive orrery)
- [http://janus.astro.umd.edu/javadir/orbits/ssv.html Solar System Viewer] (animation)
- [http://www.sky-pics.net/ Pictures of the solar system]
- [http://gw.marketingden.com/planets/sun.html Renderings of the planets]
- [http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/ NASA Planet Quest]
- [http://www.ciw.edu/IAU/div3/wgesp/definition.html Working definition of "planet"] from IAU WGESP — the lower bound remained a matter of consensus in February 2003
- Dan Green's page on [http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/icq/ICQPluto.html planet classification]
- [http://www.spacedaily.com/news/outerplanets-04b.html Gravity Rules: The Nature and Meaning of Planethood]; S. Alan Stern; March 22, 2004
- [http://www.iau.org/IAU/FAQ/PlutoPR.html On the status of Pluto]; IAU, February 3, 1999
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zh-min-nan:He̍k-chheⁿ
Hal ClementHarry Clement Stubbs (May 30, 1922 - October 29, 2003), better known by the pen name Hal Clement, was an American science fiction writer, a leader of the subgenre hard science fiction.
He was born in Somerville, Massachusetts
During the World War II he was a pilot and copilot of the B-24 Liberator and flew 35 combat missions over Europe with 8th Air Force. He served in the Army Air Corps Reserve, and retired with the rank of colonel. He taught chemistry for many years at Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts.
He went to Harvard, graduating with a B.S. in astronomy in 1943. While there he published his first story, "Proof", in the June 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. His further educational background includes an, M. Ed. (Boston University 1946), and M.S. in chemistry (Simmons College 1963).
Clement received the 1998 recognition as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). In 1996 he retroactively received a 1946 Hugo Award for his short story "Uncommon Sense".
His best-known novel, Mission of Gravity, is the account of a land and sea expedition across the superjovian planet Mesklin to recover a stranded scientific probe. The natives of Mesklin are centipede-like intelligent beings about 50 centimeters in length. Various episodes hinge on the fact that Mesklin's fast rotational speed causes it to be considerably deformed from the spherical, and its effective surface gravity to vary from approximately 3 gn at the equator to approximately 700 gn at the poles.
Clement's article "Whirligig World" describes his approach to writing a science fiction story:"Writing a science fiction story is fun, not work. ... the fun... lies in treating the whole thing as a game. ... the rules must be quite simple. They are; for the reader of a science-fiction story, they consist of finding as many as possible of the author's statements or implications which conflict with the facts as science currently understands them. For the author, the rule is to make as few such slips as he possibly can. ... Certain exceptions are made [e.g., to allow travel faster than the speed of light, but] fair play demands that all such matters be mentioned as early as possible in the story..."
He also painted astronomically oriented artworks under the name George Richard.
Clement was a frequent guest at science fiction conventions, especially in the eastern United States, where he usually presented talks and slide shows about writing and astronomy.
Bibliography
- Needle (1950)
- Iceworld (1953)
- Mission of Gravity (1954)
- The Ranger Boys in Space (1956) (for children)
- Cycle of Fire (1957)
- Close to Critical (1964)
- Star Light (1971) (sequel to Mission of Gravity)
- Ocean on Top (1973)
- Through the Eye of a Needle (1978) (sequel to Needle)
- The Nitrogen Fix (1980)
- Still River (1987)
- Fossil (1993)
- Half Life (1999)
- Noise (2003)
External links
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Clement, Hal
Clement, Hal
Clement
Clement, Hal
Clement, Hal
Clement, Hal
Clement, Hal
Category:ISBN needed
ja:ハル・クレメント
1953
1953 (MCMLIII) is a common year starting on Thursday.
Events
January
- January 7 - President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb.
- January 12 - Estonian emigres find a government in exile in Oslo
- January 13 - Marshal Josip Broz Tito chosen President of Yugoslavia
- January 15 - Georg Dertinger, foreign minister of East Germany, is arrested for spying
- January 20 - Change of US presidency from Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) to Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961).
- January 22 - The Crucible, a drama by Arthur Miller, opens on Broadway
- January 24 – Mau Mau rebels in Kenya kill Ruck family – father, mother and a 6-year-old son
- January 26 - Walter Ulbricht announces that the agriculture will be collectivized in East Germany
- January 28 - Derek Bentley is executed for murder in Wandsworth Prison
- January 31-February 1 - North Sea flood of 1953 kills 1,835 people in the southwestern Netherlands (especially Zeeland), 307 in the United Kingdom and several hundred at sea, including 132 on the ferry Princess Victoria in the Irish Sea
February
- February 1 - Surge of North Sea Flood of 1953 continues from the previous day.
- February 5 - The movie Peter Pan premieres (Roxy Theatre, New York City).
- February 11 - President Eisenhower refuses clemency appeal for Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.
- February 11 - The Soviet Union breaks diplomatic relations with Israel.
- February 13 - Transsexual Christine Jorgenson returns to New York after successful sexual reassignment surgery in Denmark
- February 18 - The first 3D film, Bwana Devil opens.
- February 19 - Censorship: Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States
- February 28 - James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA.
March-April
- March 1 - After an all-night dinner with Soviet Union interior minister Lavrenty Beria and future premiers Georgi Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev, Joseph Stalin collapses, having suffered a stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body.
- March 1 - Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg made the deputy constable and lieutenant governor of Windsor Castle
- March 5 - After 29 years of ruling the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin dies.
- March 6 - Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov succeeds Josef Stalin as Premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
- March 11 - U.S. B-47 bomber accidentally drops an atom bomb on Mars Bluff, South Carolina. Fortunately it fails to detonate.
- March 13 - United Nations Security Council nominates Dag Hammarskjöld as United Nations Secretary General
- March 14 - Nikita Khruschev selected general secretary of the Soviet communist party
- March 17 - Nuclear test in Nevada - with 1620 spectators in 3.4 km
- March 18 - An earthquake hits western Turkey killing 250.
- March 25-26 – Lari Massacre in Kenya – Mau Mau rebels kill up to 150 kikuyu
- March 26 - Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine.
- April 7 - Dag Hammarskjöld is elected United Nations Secretary General.
- April 8 – Jomo Kenyatta is sentenced for seven years in prison for alleged organization of Mau Mau Rebellion
- April 13 - Ian Fleming publishes his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale in the United Kingdom
- April 25 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish their description of the double helix structure of DNA.(::Watson, J. D. and Crick, F. H. C. (1953). [http://www.nature.com/genomics/human/watson-crick/index.html Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid]. Nature 171, 737-738.)
May
DNA
- May 2 - Hussein is crowned King of Jordan.
- May 2 - 38-year-old Stanley Matthews finally wins the FA Cup at his third attempt, in the famous 'Matthews Final'
- May 9 – France agrees to the provisional independence of Cambodia with the king Norodom Sihanouk
- May 10 - Town of Chemnitz in East Germany becomes Karl Marx Stadt
- May 11 - The Waco Tornado: A F5 tornado hits in the downtown section of Waco, Texas killing 114.
- May 18 - At Rogers Dry Lake, California Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier (she flew in a F-86 Sabrejet at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour).
- May 25 - Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test.
- May 29 - Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay perform the first successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest.
June-July
Mount Everest
- June 2 - Coronation of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom at Westminster Abbey.
- June 8 - Flint-Worcester Tornadoes: A tornado hits in Flint, Michigan and kills 115. This is the last tornado to claim more than 100 lives.
- June 8 - Austria and Soviet Union form diplomatic relations
- June 9 - CIA Technical Services Staff head Sidney Gottlieb approves of the use of LSD in a MKULTRA subproject.
- June 9 - Flint-Worcester Tornadoes: A tornado spawned from the same storm system as the Flint tornado hits in Worcester, Massachusetts killing 94.
- June 12 - Currency reform causes riots in Czechoslovakia
- June 13 - Hungarian Prime Minister Mátyás Rákosi is replaced by Imre Nagy.
- June 16 - Soviet Union and Yugoslavia form diplomatic relations
- June 17 - Workers Uprising: In East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a Division (military) of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.
- June 18 - Egypt declares a republic
- June 19 - Execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
- June 30 - The first Chevrolet Corvette is built at Flint (Michigan)
- July 4 - Strikes and riots in coal mining regions in Poland
- July 5 - First meeting of the assembly of the European Economic Community in Strasbourg, France
- July 10 – Soviet official paper Pravda announces that Lavrenti Beria has been deposed from his positions as a head of NKVD
- July 18 - Flood in the Hodno island in Japan - 1700 dead, 7000 injured
- July 26 - Fidel Castro and his brother lead a disastrous assault on the Moncada Barracks - preliminary to the Cuban Revolution.
- July 27 - Korean War ends: The United States, People's Republic of China, North Korea, and South Korea sign an armistice agreement.
August-October
- August 5 - Operation Big Switch, operation to repatriate prisoners of war after the Korean War
- August 7 - Ohio admitted as a U. S. state, retroactive to 1803.
- August 8 - Soviet prime minister Georgi Malenkov announces that Soviet Union has a hydrogen bomb
- August 11 - Earthquake devastates islands of the Ionian Sea
- August 13 - 4 million workers go on strike in France to protest austerity measures
- August 17 - Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California, see October 5.
- August 18 - Kinsey report
- August 19 - Cold War: The CIA helps to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and retain Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on the throne (see: Operation Ajax).
- August 20 - French government oust the sultan of Morocco and exiles him to Corsica
- August 20 - USA gives West Germany 382 ships it captured during World War Two
- August 25 - General strike ends in France
- September 3 - Birthday, Cheryl Tutson, 1953
- September 5 - United Nations does not accept Soviet Union's suggestion to accept China as a member
- September 7 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes head of the Soviet Central Committee.
- September 25 - Hurricane in South-East Asia - over 1000 dead
- September 25 - First German prisoners of war return from Soviet Union to West Germany
- September 26 - Rationing of sugar ends in the United Kingdom
- October - The UNIVAC 1103 is the first commercial computer to use random access memory.
- October 5 - First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous (first planning session was held August 17)
- October 9 - Konrad Adenauer is re-elected as a German chancellor
- October 12 - "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" opens at Plymouth Theatre, New York.
- October 30 - Cold War: US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves the top secret document National Security Council Paper No. 162/2, which states that the United States' arsenal of nuclear weapons must be maintained and expanded to counter the communist threat.
November-December
- November 5 - David Ben Gurion resigns as a prime minister of Israel
- November 9 - Cambodia becomes independent from France.
- November 9 - King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia dies
- November 21 - Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announce that the skull of the "Piltdown Man", one of the most famous fossil skulls in the world, is a hoax.
- November 23 - Moscow announces that Lavrenti Beria has been executed
- November 25 - England lose 6-3 to Hungary at Wembley Stadium, their first ever loss to a continental team at home
- November 29 - French paratroopers take Dien Bien Phu
- December 2 - United Kingdom and Iran reform diplomatic relations
- December 8 - US president Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his Atoms for Peace address to the UN General Assembly in New York City
- December 23 – Soviet Union announces officially that Lavrenti Beria has been executed
- December 24 - 153 people die as a result of the Tangiwai disaster when the railway bridge collapses at Tangiwai, New Zealand sending a fully loaded passenger train into the Whangaehu River
- December 30 - The first color television sets go on sale for about $1,175 (American dollars).
Births
January-February
- January 4 - George Tenet, American Central Intelligence Agency director
- January 8 - Bruce Sutter, baseball player
- January 10 - Pat Benatar, American singer
- January 10 - Bobby Rahal, American race car driver
- January 19 - Desi Arnaz Jr., American actor
- January 21 - Paul Allen, American entrepreneur
- January 22 - Jim Jarmusch, American director
- January 26 - Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark
- February 7 - Dan Quisenberry, baseball player (d. 1998)
- February 8 - Mary Steenburgen, American actress
- February 11 - Philip Anglim, American actor
- February 11 - Jeb Bush, brother of President George W Bush and son of George H.W. Bush and Barbara Pierce Bush
- February 11 - Alan Rubin, American musician
- February 17 - Norman Pace, British actor and comedian
- February 21 - William Petersen, American actor
- February 25 - José María Aznar, Spanish politician
- February 25 - Martin Kippenberger, German artist
March-May
- March 1 - Richard Bruton, Irish politician and economist
- March 6 - Jan Kjærstad, Norwegian author
- March 6 - Jacklyn Zeman, American actress
- March 12 - Carl Hiaasen, American author
- March 12 - Ron Jeremy, American actor
- March 16 - Isabelle Huppert, French actress
- March 16 - Richard Stallman, American free software proponent
- March 23 - Chaka Khan, American singer
- March 26 - Elaine Chao, U.S. Secretary of Labor
- April 1 - Barry Sonnenfeld, American film producer and director
- April 11 - Guy Verhofstadt, Prime Minister of Belgium
- April 11 - Andrew Wiles, British-born mathematician
- April 16 - J. Neil Schulman, American writer and activist
- May 6 - Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- May 15 - George Brett, baseball player
- May 15 - Mike Oldfield, English composer
- May 16 - Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor
- May 19 - Victoria Wood, British comic actress
- May 20 - Robert Doyle, Australian politician
- May 24 - Alfred Molina, English actor
- May 26 - Michael Portillo, English politician
- May 29 - Danny Elfman, American composer
- May 30 - Colm Meaney, Irish actor
June-August
- June 1 - David Berkowitz, American serial killer
- June 8 - Bonnie Tyler, Welsh singer
- June 13 - Tim Allen, American actor
- June 21 - Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan
- July 14 - Bebe Buell, American model and singer
- July 15 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide, President of Haiti
- July 15 - Mila Pivnicki, First Lady of Canada
- July 29 - Geddy Lee, Canadian musician (Rush)
- August 5 - Rick Mahler, baseball player (d. 2005)
- August 9 - Robert Cray, American musician
- August 11 - Hulk Hogan, American professional wrestler
- August 18 - Louie Gohmert, American politician
- August 19 - Benoît Régent, French actor (d. 1994)
- August 31 - György Károly, Hungarian author
October-December
- October 2 - Brandon Wilson, American author and explorer
- October 7 - Christopher Norris, British actress
- October 7 - Tico Torres, American musician (Bon Jovi)
- October 9 - Tony Shalhoub, American actor
- October 12 - Serge Lepeltier, French politician
- October 12 - Les Dennis, British comedian and television presenter
- October 22 - Jeff Goldblum, American actor
- October 27 - Robert Picardo, American actor
- October 27 - Peter Firth, British actor
- October 31 - Michael J. Anderson, American actor
- November 4 - | | |
