page_title: Tau Ceti in fiction
section_title: Literature
hierarchical_section_title: Tau Ceti in fiction / Literature
caption_attribution_description: Digital art by Les Bossinas (Cortez III Service Corp.), 1998
context_page_description: The planetary systems of stars other than the Sun and the Solar System are a staple element in much science fiction. Tau Ceti is the second closest spectral class G star to the Sun, making it a popular story setting or system of origin in science fiction tales. The Sun, itself of spectral class G, provides an obvious model for the possibility that the star might harbor worlds capable of supporting life. But Tau Ceti, weighing in at ~0.78 M☉, is metal-poor and so is thought to be unlikely to host rocky planets; on the other hand, observations have detected more than ten times as much dust around the star than exists in the Solar System, a condition tending to enhance the probability of such bodies. Since the star's luminosity is barely 55% that of the Sun, those planets would need to circle it at the orbital radius of Venus in order to match the insolation received by the Earth.
  Tau is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet. The name Cetus is also Greek as well as Arabic and translates variously as a large fish, a whale, a shark, or a sea monster.
context_section_description: The Queen of Zamba (1949),  and other novels, novellas, and short stories in the Viagens Interplanetarias series (1949–1991) by L. Sprague de Camp. Following upon first contact with men from Earth, the inhabitants of pre-technological Krishna struggle to adapt to a future that will be radically different from their past, assisted by a cast of rogues, heroes, and charlatans from our own planet. The Tau Ceti system contains the inhabited planets Krishna, Vishnu, and Ganesha. The Krishna tales (all having a "Z" in their titles) are early examples of the planetary romance, containing a blend of intelligent, exotic adventure and wry humor characteristic of de Camp's better work.
  The Caves of Steel (1954) and many following works in the Robot, Empire, and Foundation series by Isaac Asimov. In Asimov's fictional universe, the innermost planet orbiting Tau Ceti was mankind's first extrasolar planetary settlement: Aurora, the first world settled by the Spacers, and at its height possessing a population of 200 million humans and 10 billion robots. In Caves Doctor Han Fastolfe is debating the limitations of Earthmen with detective Lije Baley: "Why is the suggestion ridiculous? Earthmen have colonized planets in the past. Over thirty of the fifty Outer Worlds, including my native Aurora, were directly colonized by Earthmen."
  Time for the Stars (1956), novel by Robert Heinlein. This novel explores the twin paradox as one of a pair of twins linked by instantaneous telepathy sets out on a space voyage on the interstellar torchship Lewis and Clark. The starship, nicknamed "Elsie" (for the initials L.C.), encounters a number of more or less terrestrial planets including Constance, in orbit around Tau Ceti, a world later colonized by humans. Heinlein uses an obsolete value for Tau Ceti's luminosity—0.3 —and calculates that earthlike Constance must orbit its star at a radius of 50 million miles.
  Destination: Void (1966), novel by Frank Herbert. As an artificial intelligence experiment, a crew of clones is raised in isolation on the Moon believing that they are the crew of a sleeper ship dispatched on a colonizing expedition to the Tau Ceti system, captained by the Organic Mental Core, a disembodied human brain.
  Empire Star (1966), novella by Samuel R. Delany. The story revolves around the protagonist, Comet Jo, and a narrator-creature named Jewel. It is a tale of Comet Jo's coming of age, his initiation into the ways of galactic society, his efforts to deliver an unspecified but important message to the Empire Star, and his encounter with a movement to bring an end to slavery. As the narrative opens, we meet Comet Jo at eighteen years of age. He has spent his entire life in a simplex society on Rhys, a satellite of the Jovian planet Tyre orbiting Tau Ceti: "Crimson Ceti bruised the western crags; Tyre, giant as solar Jupiter, was a black curve against a quarter of the sky ..." The first insight of Jo's developing maturity is his realization that the "simplex" culture of his home is actually quite "complex"... 
  A Gift from Earth (1968), a 'Known Space' novel by Larry Niven. The colony world Plateau in the Tau Ceti system lives by a rigorous code: All crimes are punishable by involuntary organ harvesting, while organ transplants are reserved to the benefit of the aristocracy. A robotic Bussard ramjet (see graphic) arrives from Earth, bearing a gift that will upset the unstable social balance on Plateau. The relative proximity of Tau Ceti to the Earth (with a turnaround point at UV Ceti) is an important plot element in the novel, enabling Plateau to be isolated from the mother planet, and yet still close enough to receive occasional cargoes via ramjet. The exploitation of the interstellar ramjet is just one of Larry Niven's many technical coups; as his career blossomed he was seen by many as the last best hope of hard science fiction with his inventiveness, his belief in the ultimately beneficial effects of technology, and his cognitive exuberance.
  The Iron Dream (1972), novel written by Norman Spinrad. In this satirical alternate history, Ad
caption: Wormhole travel as envisioned by Les Bossinas for NASA.
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