Alpha Centauri in fiction
Encyclopedia
Alpha Centauri
Alpha Centauri
Alpha Centauri is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus...

, the closest star system
Star system
A star system or stellar system is a small number of stars which orbit each other, bound by gravitational attraction. A large number of stars bound by gravitation is generally called a star cluster or galaxy, although, broadly speaking, they are also star systems.-Binary star systems:A stellar...

 to the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...

, also known under the traditional name Toliman, is frequently referenced in science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 stories, especially those involving interstellar travel
Interstellar travel
Interstellar space travel is manned or unmanned travel between stars. The concept of interstellar travel in starships is a staple of science fiction. Interstellar travel is much more difficult than interplanetary travel. Intergalactic travel, or travel between different galaxies, is even more...

. Although it is a binary star
Binary star
A binary star is a star system consisting of two stars orbiting around their common center of mass. The brighter star is called the primary and the other is its companion star, comes, or secondary...

, the two stars (Alpha Centauri A and B) cannot be distinguished with the naked eye, and in fiction Alpha Centauri is often referred to as if it were a single star.

Proxima Centauri
Proxima Centauri
Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star about 4.2 light-years distant in the constellation of Centaurus. It was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes, the Director of the Union Observatory in South Africa, and is the nearest known star to the Sun, although it is too faint to be seen with the naked eye...

, a much smaller red dwarf
Red dwarf
According to the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, a red dwarf star is a small and relatively cool star, of the main sequence, either late K or M spectral type....

 star, 0.21 light years distant from Alpha Centauri A and B, is sometimes called Alpha Centauri C. Because it is a much smaller red dwarf star, not visible from the Earth with the naked eye, and was discovered more than half a century after Alpha Centauri, Proxima Centauri is often overlooked as being the true closest stellar neighbor to the Sun in favor of Alpha Centauri (see further Proxima Centauri in fiction).

Literature

Interest in Alpha Centauri began in 1839, once Thomas James Henderson
Thomas James Henderson
Thomas James Alan Henderson was a Scottish astronomer noted for being the first person to measure the distance to Alpha Centauri, the major component of the nearest stellar system to Earth, and for being the first Astronomer Royal for Scotland.-Early life:Born in Dundee, Scotland, he was educated...

 published his measurement of the distance to the star (made in 1832–1833). Proxima Centauri would be discovered in 1915 by Robert T. A. Innes
Robert T. A. Innes
Robert Thorburn Ayton Innes was a Scottish-South African astronomer best known for discovering Proxima Centauri in 1915, and numerous binary stars. He was also the first astronomer to have seen the Great January Comet of 1910, on January 12...

.
  • In "Far Centaurus" (1944), the classic short story by A. E. van Vogt
    A. E. van Vogt
    Alfred Elton van Vogt was a Canadian-born science fiction author regarded by some as one of the most popular and complex science fiction writers of the mid-twentieth century: the "Golden Age" of the genre....

    , an earth crew which travelled at sublight speed in hibernation to Alpha Centauri discover when they arrive that their mission was long forgotten and presumed lost, and that man has arrived long before them via superluminal travel and an unimaginably advanced human civilization has developed on the Centauri planets while they were sleeping.

  • In Philip K. Dick
    Philip K. Dick
    Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...

    's early short story The Variable Man
    The Variable Man
    The Variable Man is a novella written and sold by Philip K. Dick before he had an agent. It was first published in Space Science Fiction , Vol. 2 No. 2, July 1953 and Space Science Fiction, September 1953 with the US publication illustrated by Alex Ebel...

    (1953), the inhabitants of the Alpha Centauri system possess a vast but decaying empire that encircles humankind and prevents further exploration of the galaxy. Dick also wrote the novel Clans of the Alphane Moon
    Clans of the Alphane Moon
    Clans of the Alphane Moon is a 1964 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. It is based on his 1954 short story Shell Game, first published in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine.-Plot summary:...

    (1964), which deals with an independent former Terran Colony on Alphane III M2, an inhabitable satellite orbiting a gas giant
    Gas giant
    A gas giant is a large planet that is not primarily composed of rock or other solid matter. There are four gas giants in the Solar System: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune...

     within Alpha Centauri's planetary system. Alphane II is inhabited by sentient insectoids, who have previously fought an interstellar war with Earth, but are now engaged in an arms trade with Alphane III M2.

  • In The Magellanic Cloud
    The Magellanic Cloud
    The Magellanic Cloud is a science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem . By this novel was inspired the Czech film Ikarie XB-1.-Plot summary:...

    (Obłok Magellana, 1955, untranslated into English; the title is sometimes translated as The Magellan Nebula or The Cloud of Magellan) a novel by Stanislaw Lem
    Stanislaw Lem
    Stanisław Lem was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire. He was named a Knight of the Order of the White Eagle. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is perhaps best known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has...

    , the first interstellar expedition of mankind finds that one of the planets of Alpha Centauri is inhabited by an advanced civilization.

  • Revolt on Alpha C
    Revolt on Alpha C
    Revolt on Alpha C is a science fiction novel written by Robert Silverberg and published in 1955. It was Silverberg's first published novel.- Plot summary :...

    (1955) was Robert Silverberg
    Robert Silverberg
    Robert Silverberg is an American author, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple nominee of the Hugo Award and a winner of the Nebula Award.-Early years:...

    's first novel.

  • In Edmund Cooper
    Edmund Cooper
    Edmund Cooper was an English poet and prolific writer of speculative fiction, romances, technical essays, several detective stories, and a children's book. These were published under his own name and several pen names...

    's Seed of Light (1959), a crew of thoroughly-chosen men and women fleeing Earth after a nuclear catastrophe are disappointed when they reach Alpha Centauri, because they find this has no planetary system so that they have to travel on.

  • Gordon R. Dickson
    Gordon R. Dickson
    Gordon Rupert Dickson was an American science fiction author.- Biography :Dickson was born in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1923. After the death of his father, he moved with his mother to Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1937...

    's Childe Cycle
    Childe Cycle
    The Childe Cycle is an unfinished series of science fiction novels by Gordon R. Dickson. The name Childe Cycle is an allusion to Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, a poem by Robert Browning, which provided considerable inspiration for elements in Dickson's magnum opus.The series is sometimes...

    (1959) has the planets Cassida and Newton in orbit around Alpha Centauri A and B, respectively.

  • In Leigh Brackett
    Leigh Brackett
    Leigh Douglass Brackett was an American author, particularly of science fiction. She was also a screenwriter, known for her work on famous films such as The Big Sleep , Rio Bravo , The Long Goodbye and The Empire Strikes Back .-Life:Leigh Brackett was born and grew up in Los Angeles, California...

    's Alpha Centauri or Die! (1963), the overly regulated government on Mars
    Mars
    Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

     has become so stifling that a small group of men secretly restore an old spaceship and go with their families to a habitable planet of Alpha Centauri, where they can govern themselves.

  • In Larry Niven
    Larry Niven
    Laurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...

    's Known Space
    Known Space
    Known Space is the fictional setting of some dozen science fiction novels and several collections of short stories written by author Larry Niven. It has also in part been used as a shared universe in the Man-Kzin Wars spin-off anthologies sub-series....

     (1964 onward), Wunderland is a habitable planet circling Alpha Centauri, and was the earliest extra-solar colony in human history. Later it is occupied for a long time by the Kzinti, an intelligent catlike species, after their first contact
    First contact (science fiction)
    First contact is a common science fiction theme about the first meeting between humans and extraterrestrial life, or of any sentient race's first encounter with another one....

     with humans, which resulted in several interstellar war
    Interstellar war
    In fiction, an interstellar war is a war between combatants whose respective headquarters lie in different planetary systems. It is a popular plot device in science fiction, especially in the space opera subgenre. An intergalactic war refers to war between combatants of different galaxies...

    s.

  • In Stewart Cowley's Terran Trade Authority
    Terran Trade Authority
    The Terran Trade Authority is a science-fiction setting originally presented in a collection of four large illustrated science fiction books published between 1978 and 1980...

     setting (1978–1980), Alpha Centauri is the home system of the Alphans, the first alien race Terrans made contact with and allies in the war with Proxima Centauri.

  • In Thomas J. Hubschman's novel Alpha II (1979) a failed colony at Alpha Centauri is the subject of an explorer's investigations.

  • James P. Hogan
    James P. Hogan (writer)
    James Patrick Hogan was a British science fiction author.-Biography:Hogan was born in London, England. He was raised in the Portobello Road area on the west side of London...

    's novel Voyage from Yesteryear
    Voyage from Yesteryear
    Voyage from Yesteryear is a 1982 science fiction novel by the author James P. Hogan. It explores themes of anarchism and the appropriateness of certain social values in the context of high-technology....

    (1982) discusses the anarchistic libertarian society that evolves on Chiron from children created from raw genetic code and base chemicals, circling one of the stars of Alpha Centauri, and the attempts that a later expedition from a more militarized Earth that attempts to take over and co-opt their production to help fight the war back on Earth.

  • In William Gibson
    William Gibson
    William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...

    's novel Neuromancer
    Neuromancer
    Neuromancer is a 1984 novel by William Gibson, a seminal work in the cyberpunk genre and the first winner of the science-fiction "triple crown" — the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. It was Gibson's debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy...

     (1984), the newly formed Wintermute/Neuromancer artificial intelligence construct on Earth begins searching for other super-AIs like itself. It discovers radio messages broadcasted in the 1970s by a lone AI in the Alpha Centauri star system.

  • In Isaac Asimov
    Isaac Asimov
    Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...

    's Foundation and Earth
    Foundation and Earth
    Foundation and Earth is a Locus Award nominated science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov, the fifth novel of the Foundation series and chronologically the last in the series...

    (1986), Foundation councillor Golan Trevize and his traveling companions find the last survivors of a radioactive Earth on a largely marine planet, Alpha, which is in orbit around the largest star of the Alpha Centauri system. The name of the settlement is New Earth.

  • In The Domination
    The Domination
    The Domination of Draka is a dystopian alternate history series by S. M. Stirling. It comprises a main trilogy of novels as well as one crossover novel set after the original and a book of short stories...

    series (1988 onward) by S. M. Stirling
    S. M. Stirling
    Stephen Michael Stirling is a French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and the more recent time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series.-Personal:Stirling was born on...

    , Samothrace is a planet in the Centauri system inhabited by descendants of those who managed to escape Earth after an oppressive militaristic nation known as The Domination of the Draka won control of the planet.

  • Jack McDevitt
    Jack McDevitt
    Jack McDevitt is an American science fiction author whose novels frequently deal with attempts to make contact with alien races, and with archaeology or xenoarchaeology....

    's short story "It’s a Long Way to Alpha Centauri" (1990).

  • In Poul Anderson
    Poul Anderson
    Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories...

    's book, Harvest of Stars (1993), a fictitious planet of Alpha Centauri is colonized for the single millennium before the planet's destruction by a rogue planet.

  • In Flying to Valhalla (1993) and The Killing Star (1995) by Charles R. Pellegrino
    Charles R. Pellegrino
    Charles R. Pellegrino is the controversial author of several books relating to science and archaeology, including Return to Sodom and Gomorrah, Ghosts of the Titanic, Unearthing Atlantis and Ghosts of Vesuvius....

    , Alpha Centauri and Proxima Centauri
    Proxima Centauri
    Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star about 4.2 light-years distant in the constellation of Centaurus. It was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes, the Director of the Union Observatory in South Africa, and is the nearest known star to the Sun, although it is too faint to be seen with the naked eye...

     are home to multiple offshoots of an alien race called Alphans who become involved in an intricate plot revolving around the concept of a relativistic kill vehicle
    Relativistic kill vehicle
    A relativistic kill vehicle or relativistic bomb is a hypothetical weapon system sometimes found in science fiction. The details of such systems vary widely, but the key common feature is the use of a massive impactor traveling at a significant fraction of light speed to strike the target...

    .

  • In Mary Doria Russell
    Mary Doria Russell
    Mary Doria Russell is an American novelist. -Biography:Russell was born in the suburbs of Chicago. Her parents were both in the military: her father was a Marine Corps drill instructor, and her mother was a Navy nurse. She graduated from Glenbard East High School and later she earned a Ph.D in...

    's novel The Sparrow (1996), in 2019 humanity receives radio broadcasts coming from the planet Rakhat in the Alpha Centauri system, and the Vatican sends a small Jesuit-led group (four Jesuit priests, a young astronomer, a doctor, an engineer, and a young computer genius) to the planet on an expedition resulting in tragedy.

  • In Alpha Centauri by William Barton
    William Barton (writer)
    William Renald Barton III is an American science fiction writer. In addition to his standalone novels, he is also known for collaborations with Michael Capobianco...

     with Michael Capobianco (1997), a terrorist plague endangers an exploration ship; the explorers discover the remains of an ancient civilization and a device that can see into the past to find out what happened to that race.

  • In Paul Levinson
    Paul Levinson
    Paul Levinson is an American author and professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University in New York City. Levinson's novels, short fiction, and non-fiction works have been translated into twelve languages....

    's novel, Borrowed Tides (2001), the first starship sets forth from our solar system to Alpha Centauri with just enough fuel for a one-way trip.

  • Michael Ely
    Michael Ely
    Michael Ely is the writer of the trilogy of books surrounding the events in the computer game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.* Centauri Dawn - ISBN 0-671-04077-4* Dragon Sun - ISBN 0-671-04078-2* Twilight of the Mind - ISBN 0-671-04079-0...

     has written a trilogy of novels based on Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
    Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
    Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is the critically acclaimed science fiction 4X turn-based strategy video game sequel to the Civilization series. Sid Meier, designer of Civilization, and Brian Reynolds, designer of Civilization II, developed Alpha Centauri after they left MicroProse to join the newly...

    (1999) computer game: Centauri Dawn
    Centauri Dawn
    Centauri Dawn is the first book in the trilogy novelization of the popular computer game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. The trilogy was written by the game's story developer Michael Ely and describes the struggles of the colonists on Chiron - a habitable planet in the Alpha Centauri system, after...

    (2000), Dragon Sun (2001), and Twilight of the Mind (2002). The game also spawned a graphic novel, Alpha Centauri: Power of the Mindworms (2000), written by Steve Darnell and illustrated by Rafael Kayanan
    Rafael Kayanan
    Rafael Kayanan is a Filipino-born naturalised American comic book artist and Filipino Martial Arts master in the Sayoc Kali system.-Biography:...

    , and a GURPS
    GURPS
    The Generic Universal RolePlaying System, or GURPS, is a tabletop role-playing game system designed to allow for play in any game setting...

     role-playing rule book, GURPS: Alpha Centauri (2002).

  • In the Starfire
    Starfire (strategy game)
    Starfire is a board wargame simulating space warfare and empire building in the 23rd century, created by Stephen V. Cole in 1979.-Starfire editions:...

     series of novels (2002 onward) by David Weber
    David Weber
    David Mark Weber is an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Weber and his wife Sharon live in Greenville, South Carolina with their three children and "a passel of dogs"....

     and Steve White
    Steve White (science fiction)
    Steve White is an American science fiction author best known as the co-author of the Starfire-series alongside David Weber.He is married with 3 daughters and currently lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. He also works for a legal publishing company...

    , Alpha Centauri is the most important system in the Terran Federation due to the large number of warp-point junctions in the system and its proximity (one warp transit) to Earth. It is the headquarters and principal shipyard of the Terran Federation Navy. Because of the nature of warp junction travel, it was believed to be secure from any attack because of the Terran Federation's immense strategic depth, however in the novel In Death Ground
    In Death Ground
    In Death Ground is a 1997 military science fiction novel by David Weber and Steve White. The story is completed in the novel The Shiva Option....

    , the Arachnids discovered a closed warp point into the Alpha Centauri system, allowing the system to be threatened and seriously attacked.

  • In Flight of The Mayflower (2004), NASA, through the US Government and The Mayflower Consortium (a loosely-knit group of mega-corporations), send a manned mission to the second terrestrial planet of Alpha Centauri A, attempting to escape an Earth beset with civil unrest and nuclear war, and establish an outpost of Humanity, far from any threat posed to life on Earth
    Earth
    Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

    . The flight takes ten years, propelled by two redundant 1 GW
    GW
    -Science and technology:* .gw, the Internet top-level domain of Guinea-Bissau* Gateway * GateWorld* The symbol for GigaWatt, a unit for measuring electric power, equal to 109 watts* Global warming...

     nuclear reactors fueling an ion drive
    Ion thruster
    An ion thruster is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion that creates thrust by accelerating ions. Ion thrusters are categorized by how they accelerate the ions, using either electrostatic or electromagnetic force. Electrostatic ion thrusters use the Coulomb force and...

    .

  • Keith Mansfield’s
    Keith Mansfield (writer)
    Keith Mansfield, born in Scunthorpe, England in 1965, is an English writer and publisher. He is the author of the Johnny Mackintosh series of novels, has scripted several television programmes and is also the publisher for mathematics books at Oxford University Press.His first novel, Johnny...

     Johnny Mackintosh: Star Blaze (2010), the second of the Johnny Mackintosh
    Johnny Mackintosh
    Johnny Mackintosh is the fictional hero of a series of books by English novelist Keith Mansfield, published by Quercus Books.The first title in the series, Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London, opens on his thirteenth birthday and finds Johnny living in Halader House, a children’s home in the...

     novels, opens with one of the stars of the Alpha Centauri System (apparently known to most of the Galaxy as Toliman
    Tolimán
    Tolimán may refer to:*Tolimán , a town in the Mexican state of Jalisco.*Tolimán , a town in the Mexican state of Querétaro.*Volcán Tolimán, a stratovolcano in Guatemala....

    ) being turned into a supernova
    Supernova
    A supernova is a stellar explosion that is more energetic than a nova. It is pronounced with the plural supernovae or supernovas. Supernovae are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy, before fading from view over several weeks or months...

     as part of an intergalactic war.

  • Tale of Two Planets by Professor Morris ("spell my name with a W") Asimow. Science fiction novel with a social message. Visitors from Alpha Centari help create a Utopian planet earth.

  • In C.J. Cherryh's Alliance-Union future history, the Alpha Centauri system is the site of the space settlement Beta Station, established in 2039 but mysteriously abandoned around 2160. Because it is off the main lines of trade and apparently has no special resources of note, the system is not recolonized for at least the next 300 years (i.e. when Cyteen
    Cyteen
    Cyteen is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction novel by C. J. Cherryh set in her Alliance-Union universe. The murder of a major Union politician and scientist has deep, long-lasting repercussions....

    takes place).

  • In Liu Cixin
    Liu Cixin
    Liu Cixin , an eight-time winner of the Galaxy Award for science-fiction writing and an awardee of the Xingyun Awards, is the most prolific and popular science fiction writer in the People's Republic of China...

    's Three Body(The first book of the Forgone Earth Trilogy), the Alpha Centauri system presents a classical three-body problem, i.e., the three stars move around each other in irregular and unforeseeable ways, due to the complicated gravity correlations between them, which cause the only planet in this system to revolve totally rulelessly. But a special life system still managed to evolve there, and gave rise to an intellectual race. Their civilization has been destroyed hundreds of times by the unpredictable movement of their suns as mentioned above. In order to find another planet where they can survive and lead a better life, these aliens prepared an invasion to the Earth, their nearest neighbor.

Film and television

  • In James Cameron's Avatar (2009), set during the 22nd century, Pandora is the largest moon that orbits Polyphemus, one of three imagined gas giants in the Alpha Centauri
    Alpha Centauri
    Alpha Centauri is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus...

     A star system. Pandora is Earth-like and is inhabited by myriad life-forms, including the blue-skinned, 10 feet (3 m) beings belonging to a humanoid race called the Na'vi. However, in reality, gas giants are not likely around Alpha Centauri A and there is a higher possibility of small, rocky terrestrial planets around it.

  • The Centauri
    Centauri (Babylon 5)
    The Centauri are a humanoid species in the fictional universe of the Babylon 5 television series. They were the first alien species to make open contact with the human race. Their homeworld is Centauri Prime, a small Earth-like planet consisting of two large continents and several smaller islands...

     of the television series Babylon 5
    Babylon 5
    Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...

     are sometimes incorrectly assumed to originate from Alpha Centauri. In the context of the show, this may be because humans first met the Centauri in the Centaurus
    Centaurus
    Centaurus is a bright constellation in the southern sky. One of the largest constellations, Centaurus was included among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations.-Stars:...

     constellation.

  • In Into infinity, the lightship Altares explores the Alpha Centauri system before continuing its interstellar journey.

  • The original destination of the Lost in Space TV series' Jupiter 2 spacecraft was a habitable planet located in the Alpha Centauri system.

Comics and animation

  • In the DC Comics
    DC Comics
    DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

     universe, the planet Rann
    Rann
    Rann is a fictional planet in the Polaris star system of the whose capitol city is Ranagar. Rann is most famous for being the adopted planet of the Earth explorer and hero Adam Strange and for their teleportation device called the Zeta Beam...

     originated in the Alpha Centauri system. Rannians are so close to normal Earth-based humans that Adam Strange
    Adam Strange
    Adam Strange is a fictional superhero published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Mike Sekowsky, he first appeared in Showcase #17 .In May 2011, Adam Strange placed 97th on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time....

     was brought to the planet to act as a sort of breeding stud. This was before Rann was teleported out of the Alpha Centauri system, into a parallel pocket universe
    Pocket universe
    -In science:A pocket universe is a concept in inflationary theory, proposed by Alan Guth. It defines a realm like the one that contains the observable universe as only one of many inflationary zones.-In fiction:...

    , and then to the Polaris
    Polaris
    Polaris |Alpha]] Ursae Minoris, commonly North Star or Pole Star, also Lodestar) is the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor. It is very close to the north celestial pole, making it the current northern pole star....

     system.

  • In the Marvel Comics
    Marvel Comics
    Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

     title Guardians of the Galaxy
    Guardians of the Galaxy
    The original Guardians of the Galaxy are a fictional superhero team that appear in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Guardians first appear in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 .-Publication history:...

    , humans have established a colony in the 31st century on the planet Centauri IV, co-existing with the native inhabitants (including Yondu Udonta
    Yondu
    Yondu is a fictional superhero in the future of the Marvel Comics universe, and a founding member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.-Fictional character biography:...

     and Photon).

  • In the Dan Dare
    Dan Dare
    Dan Dare is a British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson who also wrote the first stories, that is, the Venus and Red Moon stories, and a complete storyline for Operation Saturn...

     stories, "The Man from Nowhere" and its sequel "Rogue Planet", the star system Dan Dare visits is less than 5 light years from Earth and has three suns, one of which is a red dwarf; so is presumably meant to be the Alpha Centauri system.

  • In the Marvel Comics
    Marvel Comics
    Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

     series The Transformers
    The Transformers (Marvel Comics)
    The Transformers was an 80-issue American comic book series published by Marvel Comics telling the story of the Transformers. Originally scheduled as a four issue mini-series, it spawned a mythology that would inform other versions of the saga...

    , the Transformers' home planet Cybertron
    Cybertron
    Cybertron is a fictional planet, the homeworld of the Transformers in the various fictional incarnations of the metaseries and toyline by Hasbro. In the Japanese series, the planet is referred to as "Cybertron" pronounced as セイバートロン Seibātoron...

     originally orbits Alpha Centauri.

Computer games

  • One of the potential victory conditions in Civilization
    Civilization (computer game)
    Sid Meier's Civilization is a turn-based strategy "4X"-type strategy video game created by Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley for MicroProse in 1991. The game's objective is to "Build an empire to stand the test of time": it begins in 4000 BC and the players attempt to expand and develop their empires...

     (1991) and its sequels
    Civilization (series)
    Civilization is a series of turn-based strategy, 4X video games produced by Sid Meier. Basic gameplay functions are similar throughout the series, namely, buiding a civilization on a macro-scale from prehistory up to the near future...

     involves being the first civilization to send a colony vessel to the Alpha Centauri system. If more than one civilization is in a position to do so, a space race
    Space Race
    The Space Race was a mid-to-late 20th century competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in space exploration. Between 1957 and 1975, Cold War rivalry between the two nations focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national...

     may result.

  • The computer games Frontier: Elite II (1993) and Frontier: First Encounters
    First Encounters
    Frontier: First Encounters is a computer video game for the IBM PC released on April 16, 1995. It is the sequel to Frontier: Elite II released in 1993, which itself is a sequel to the Elite series of games which debuted on the Acorn BBC Micro computer in 1984...

    (1995), Alpha Centauri is notable as being the location of the discovery of the first extrasolar planet with flowing surface water. The planet (named Eden) was later determined as being uninhabitable, though a small research station is present on the surface. The system is an unpopular destination for players as the only starport in Alpha Centauri is usually 900 to 1,000 A.U.
    Astronomical unit
    An astronomical unit is a unit of length equal to about or approximately the mean Earth–Sun distance....

     away from where ships tend to exit hyperspace from. This usually means wasting an (in-game) month trying to reach the port without many prospects for combat or trade.

  • In the game Alien Legacy
    Alien Legacy
    Alien Legacy is a sci-fi strategy game developed by Ybarra Productions, Inc. and published by Sierra On-Line in 1994 for the DOS operating system on the PC.-Gameplay:...

    (1994), Alpha Centauri is the homeworld of a hostile alien race which is involved in a war with Earth. This is part of the background story, as the plot of the game does not directly reveal, or in fact deal with the result of that conflict.

  • In Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri
    Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri
    Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri is a 1996 tactical first-person shooter video game developed and published by Looking Glass Technologies. Set in a science fictional depiction of the 24th century, the game follows a faction of humans who colonize the Alpha Centauri star system to escape from a...

    (1996), the Alpha Centauri system, consisting of eight planets and several moons, has been colonized in the 22nd century. The game itself takes place entirely on three of the planets and one of the moons.

  • In the computer game Independence War
    I-War (Independence War)
    I-War is a space combat simulator developed by English development house Particle Systems Ltd. The game was first published in 1997 in Europe by Infogrames as I-War, and in late August of 1998 in North America as Independence War...

    (1997), Alpha Centauri is described lying roughly at the center of the known jump point network, giving this system high strategic importance.

  • In the PlayStation
    PlayStation
    The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...

     game series Colony Wars (1997), Alpha Centauri was the first star system to be colonized outside of our own solar system.

  • Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
    Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
    Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is the critically acclaimed science fiction 4X turn-based strategy video game sequel to the Civilization series. Sid Meier, designer of Civilization, and Brian Reynolds, designer of Civilization II, developed Alpha Centauri after they left MicroProse to join the newly...

    (1999), a spiritual sequel to Civilization, involves seven ideological factions competing to colonize the Earth-like planet Chiron that orbits Alpha Centauri. An expansion pack, called Alien Crossfire, has also been released, also set in the Alpha Centauri system. A GURPS
    GURPS
    The Generic Universal RolePlaying System, or GURPS, is a tabletop role-playing game system designed to allow for play in any game setting...

     book (Gurps: Alpha Centauri, 2002) was published to allow role-playing in this universe.

  • " Mass Effect 2
    Mass Effect 2
    Mass Effect 2 is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on January 26, 2010 and for PlayStation 3 on January 18, 2011...

    " (2010) mentions an expedition that left for the alpha centauri system in 2070, after which contact was lost when humanity began to expand out into the galaxy. In 2185, the asari, a race allied with humanity, reports the discovery of an independent colony in the system.

  • In Earth & Beyond
    Earth & Beyond
    Earth & Beyond was a science fiction massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Electronic Arts . The game was released on September 24, 2002 in the United States. EA shut down Earth & Beyond on September 22, 2004...

    (2002), Alpha Centauri is featured as a Terran colonized star system with two habitable planets: Zweihander, a Super-Earth
    Super-Earth
    A super-Earth is an extrasolar planet with a mass higher than Earth's, but substantially below the mass of the Solar System's gas giants. The term super-Earth refers only to the mass of the planet, and does not imply anything about the surface conditions or habitability...

     orbiting Alpha Centauri A and Witburg, a planet about the size of Mars
    Mars
    Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

     orbiting Alpha Centauri B.

  • In the PlayStation
    PlayStation
    The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...

     game series Killzone
    Killzone (series)
    Killzone is a series of shooter games exclusively for Sony Computer Entertainment's video game consoles. The series is developed by Guerilla Games, a subsidiary of SCE. Killlzone consists of four games for the PlayStation 2, the PlayStation Portable, Playstation Vita and the PlayStation 3...

    (2004), Alpha Centauri is the location of at least two habitable planets, Vekta and Helghan.

Role playing games

  • In the GDW's
    Game Designers' Workshop
    Game Designers' Workshop was a wargame and role-playing game publisher from 1973 to 1996. Many of their games are now carried by other publishers.-History:Game Designers' Workshop was originally established June 22, 1973...

     2300 AD
    2300 AD
    2300 AD is a hard science fiction role-playing game created by Game Designers Workshop, originally offered as an alternative to the space opera portrayed by the company's leading science fiction role-playing game, Traveller...

    , Tirane is the first planet of Alpha Centauri A, a garden habitable world, and it houses many colonies of several Terran nations. Tirane is the first habitable world discovered by mankind, the importance of Tirane has grown up until to be converted into one of the core worlds. Limbes is the third planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B, a post-garden world, sterilized by greenhouse effect. The ESA nations have a research station in orbit around the world. Despite almost a century of study, no surviving life forms have been detected, but fossil evidence indicates a rich biosphere just under 1000 million years ago. Sheol, the first planet of Alpha Centauri B, is a hothouse with fairly large mineral deposits, a combined Mexican/Argentine research station is maintained in orbit around the world. Moiroi (and its associated satellites: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos), is the sole planet of Proxima Centauri, a few nations have scientific or mining stations in the moons.

Inhabitants of Alpha Centauri in fiction

In the following cases, people or aliens from Alpha Centauri appear, but the star or its planets are not featured:
  • In The Centauri Device (1975) by M. John Harrison
    M. John Harrison
    M. John Harrison , known as Mike Harrison, is an English author and critic. His work includes the Viriconium sequence of novels and short stories, , Climbers , and the Kefahuchi Tract series which begins with Light . He currently resides in London.-Early years:Harrison was born in Rugby,...

     the native Centaurians (humanoid aliens able to interbreed with humans) have been wiped out in a genocidal attack by expanding Earth colonisation of the galaxy. The novel's main character, whose mother was Centauran, is one of the few people in the cosmos able to operate the 'device' of the book's title; a weapon of enormous power.

  • In Larry Niven
    Larry Niven
    Laurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...

     and Jerry Pournelle
    Jerry Pournelle
    Jerry Eugene Pournelle is an American science fiction writer, essayist and journalist who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte and has since 1998 been maintaining his own website/blog....

    's novel Footfall
    Footfall
    Footfall is a 1985 science fiction novel written by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It was nominated for the both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1986, and was a No...

    (1985), the invading elephant-like creatures are revealed to have come from Alpha Centauri. In a discussion within the novel among science-fiction writers about the presumed origin of the so-called "snouts," one writer dislikes the idea of Alpha Centauri because it is "trite," but admits it got that way because it was used so often, and it was used so often because it was one of the best options.

  • In Larry Niven
    Larry Niven
    Laurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...

    's short story Like Banquo's Ghost, an emissary from Alpha Centauri is present on Earth to hear the (lightspeed) data transmissions from an unmanned Earth probe that reached his planet before, unfortunately, being shot down. (The Alpha Centaurans have FTL
    FTL
    - Science and technology :* Faster-than-light, a speculative concept in physics and science fiction** Faster Than Light , a British video games company...

     travel and so are able to reach Earth before the transmission.)

  • In the motion picture Impostor
    Impostor (film)
    Impostor is a 2002 American science fiction film based upon a short story of the same name, written by Philip K. Dick in 1953.-Plot:The movie takes place in the year 2079. Forty-five years earlier, Earth was attacked by a hostile alien civilization from Alpha Centauri...

    (2002) the evil alien race opposing Earth was from Alpha Centauri-1. It is said that Centurians are superior in intelligence to humans.

  • An inhabitant of Alpha Centauri
    Alpha Centauri (Doctor Who)
    Alpha Centauri, played by Stuart Fell and voiced by Ysanne Churchman, is a fictional alien delegate for the Galactic Federation who appears in two serials of the BBC television series Doctor Who.-Character traits:...

     appears twice in Doctor Who
    Doctor Who
    Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

    in the Third Doctor
    Third Doctor
    The Third Doctor is the third incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor Jon Pertwee....

     serials The Curse of Peladon
    The Curse of Peladon
    The Curse of Peladon is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 29 January to 19 February 1972.-Synopsis:...

    (1972) and The Monster of Peladon
    The Monster of Peladon
    The Monster of Peladon is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 23 March to 27 April 1974.-Synopsis:...

    (1974). Alpha Centauri is home to a six-armed caterpiller-like, species. They are timid, pacifistic, prone to panic and change their skin colours in response to their moods, but are still loyal and dutiful members of the Galactic Federation. If they have individual names, they've never been mentioned: it's always been 'The Delegate from Alpha Centauri'.

  • In "Metamorphosis," (1967) an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series
    Star Trek: The Original Series
    Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...

    , Zefram Cochrane
    Zefram Cochrane
    Zefram Cochrane is a fictional character in the Star Trek universe. Created by writer Gene L. Coon, the character first appeared in the 1967 Star Trek episode "Metamorphosis", in which he was played by Glenn Corbett. James Cromwell later played Cochrane in the 1996 feature film Star Trek: First...

    , the inventor of the warp drive
    Warp drive (Star Trek)
    Warp drive is a faster-than-light propulsion system in the setting of many science fiction works, most notably Star Trek. A spacecraft equipped with a warp drive may travel at velocities greater than that of light by many orders of magnitude, while circumventing the relativistic problem of time...

    , is said to be from Alpha Centauri. He is also mentioned in the Star Trek novel Federation (1994) by Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens and the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology
    Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology
    Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology is a book written and edited by Stan and Fred Goldstein, and illustrated by Rick Sternbach. At the time of its publication it was the official history of the Star Trek universe...

    ( 1980 ). However, the film Star Trek: First Contact
    Star Trek: First Contact
    Star Trek: First Contact is the eighth feature film in the Star Trek science fiction franchise, released in November 1996, by Paramount Pictures. First Contact is the first film in the franchise to feature no cast members from the original Star Trek television series of the 1960s...

    (1996), and episodes of the TV series Enterprise (2001), conclusively establish he is an Earth native (even in "Metamorphosis", just before being referred to as "of Alpha Centauri", he had been explicitly identified as Human), as he is found by the Enterprise-E crew on Earth in the late twenty-first century. It is established that Alpha Centauri is a colony founded by humans from Earth and that Cochrane lived on Alpha Centauri for a time before his mysterious disappearance.

  • In Encounter With Tiber
    Encounter With Tiber
    Encounter With Tiber is a 1996 science fiction novel written by former astronaut Buzz Aldrin and science fiction writer John Barnes...

    (1996), former astronaut Buzz Aldrin
    Buzz Aldrin
    Buzz Aldrin is an American mechanical engineer, retired United States Air Force pilot and astronaut who was the Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history...

     and science fiction writer John Barnes
    John Barnes (author)
    -Writing:Two of his novels, The Sky So Big and Black and The Duke of Uranium have been reviewed as having content appropriate for a young adult readership, comparing favorably to Robert A. Heinlein's "juvenile" novels...

    write about intelligent aliens who visited the Earth long ago. They had come from the Earth-like moon Tiber of a hypothetical giant planet round Alpha Centauri A.
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