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Tau Ceti is the closest single Sun-like star to our Sun, making it a popular setting or reference in science fiction media.
[edit] Literature
- 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 Eric Nylund's novel Halo Combat Evolved: The Fall of Reach, the Spartan-IIs receive and test their prototype version of the Mjolinir combat armour in a UNSC base located a few kilometres below the Tau Ceti's IV's crust.
- In the Viagens Interplanetarias (Interplanetary Voyages) 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 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 has a major human-inhabited planet and is an important wormhole crossroad. The Tau Cetans are a planetary polity.
- In Larry Niven's Known Space series, the human colony of Plateau orbited Tau Ceti.
- The Legacy of Heorot (1987) by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes takes place on the fourth planet of Tau Ceti.
- In Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos, Tau Ceti is orbited by Tau Ceti Center, capital of the Hegemony of Man.
- In The Iron Dream (1972) by Norman Spinrad, SS clones are sent on a mission to colonize 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 C.J. Cherryh's Hugo Award-Winning novel Downbelow Station, the space station referenced in the book's title (Pell Station) orbits a planet, Downbelow, 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 Frank Herbert's novel Destination: Void, Tau Ceti is the destination of the ship, precisely because it was known to have no habitable planets. The planet terraformed 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 Péter Zsoldos' novel trilogy (Return of the Viking, Distant Fire, The Last Temptation—originally Hungarian editions but later published in many countries around Europe), Tau Ceti is the destination of the first interstellar expedition of humanity. Gregor Man, a geologist, is left behind on one of the planets (called Gama/Lalla) of the star and later becomes the king of the city of Avana.
- In the series Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, there is a world called "Sirius Tau Ceti," settled (or artificially created) by the Sirius Corporation.
- In the Rama trilogy by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee, Rama travels through space towards Tau Ceti on their final voyage to the tetrahedric node.
- In Michael McCollum's The Sails of Tau Ceti, Earth is approached by a generation ship that left Tau Ceti as the star turned into a supernova.
- In Jim Erjavec's The Caverns of Mare Cetus, Tau Ceti is the parent star to a lifeless world that is riddled with spectacular subterranean passages. The Tau Ceti System has thirteen planets and 144 satellites. Mare Cetus is the third planet from Tau Ceti; Novia Cetus, the home planet of the explorers investigating the caverns on Mare Cetus, is the second planet. The novel is set in the year 2165.
- In Jeri Taylor's Star Trek: Voyager novel, Kathryn Janeway lost her father and her fiancé in a crash on Tau Ceti Prime.
[edit] Film and television
[edit] Comics and anime
- In the MMORPG EVE Online, the Gallentean race is said to be descended from people of French origin from the Tau Ceti system. The "Ceti Federation," a French-speaking alliance in EVE Online, has this name from this fact.
- 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, the starship Von Braun traveled on its maiden voyage to Tau Ceti V. It was also the source of the invasion on the ship by the AI SHODAN and the SHODAN-created life forms, 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. [1]
- In David Braben's Frontier: Elite II and Frontier: First Encounters, Tau Ceti is orbited by the habitable, Earthlike (and densely populated) world known as Taylor Colony. The system is a member of the Federation. It was first permanent human colony outside Solar system, and first non-Earth planet with life discovered.
- In Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire, the vaguely referenced "Tau Ceti flowering" had accidentally destroyed all sentient life in the Tau Ceti system. This destruction is the primary argument used by the alien Progenitor Manifold Caretakers against causing further flowerings in other systems.
- In all three of the Escape Velocity games, Tau Ceti is the primary of a major star system.
- In Battletech, Tau Ceti is the first planet traveled to by human beings. This is accomplished by the TAS Pathfinder, a ship powered by the Kearny-Fushida drive. Once colonized, it is named 'New Earth.'
- In Earth & Beyond, the Tau Ceti system has been colonized by the Terrans. It is one of the endpoints of the Somerled Trade Run.
- In the GDW's 2300 AD, Kwantung is the second planet of Tau Ceti, a garden habitable world, and it houses the Manchurian colony of Cahngpai and the Mexican colony of Nuevo Angeles. Tau Ceti is beside the main access to the Latin systems.
- In Battlelords of the Twenty-Third Century, Tau Ceti is the home star system for an alien race known as the Phentari. Their homeworld, Phena, is a cold methane world.
