Complex sentence: One popular science fiction novel, written in the mid 1980's, refers to this star as "Gatewood's Star" in response to several speculative books and articles he wrote predicting planets around this and other near-by stars at that time.
Split into simpler sentences: One popular science fiction novel, written in the mid 1980's, refers to this star as "Gatewood's Star". Likely this is in response to the popular books and articles he wrote predicting the existence of planets around this and other near-by stars at that time.