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"I kind of take it for granted that our great-grandchildren will regard us as a sort of precursor species. That they won't think of us as human and if we could see them, we probably wouldn't think of them as human either."
- William Gibson
 |
| Xenephrene Interstellar World | ||
| A planet not attached to a solar system. |
| By mid-December, at a convention of
astronomers held in London, the new
world was named Xenephrene. Father
went over in one of the mail planes and
read his afterward famous paper, suggesting
the name, and giving his calculation
of the elements of the orbit of this
new heavenly body. It, was the most
startling announcement which had yet
been made, and for one newspaper
edition it got the first page. And I was
ordered to give nine minutes of broadcasting
time to it. "Xenephrene" was a globe not quite, but very nearly as large as the earth. It had come whirling in like a comet from the star-filled regions of outer space; presumably like a comet to encircle our sun and then, with a hyperbolic orbit, to depart from us forever. , It had come visually into our northern heavens, and crossed the earth's orbit on the opposite side of the sun from us. It encircled the sun - this was in December—made its turn between the orbits of Mercury and Venus, and now was supposedly departing. |
| Technovelgy from A Brand New World,
by Ray Cummings. Published by Famous Fantastic Mysteries in 1942 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the first use of the term rogue planet from Satan's World (1967) by Poul Anderson, rogue world from George R.R. Martin's 1977 novel Dying of the Light and wandering worlds from When Worlds Collide (1932) by Edwin Balmer (w/P. Wylie).
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More Ideas
and Technology from A Brand New World
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and Technology by Ray Cummings
Tech news articles related to A Brand New World
Tech news articles related to works by Ray Cummings
| 'If Anyone Is Watching Earth...' |
| Cloud Of Space Rubbish From China's Long March Rocket |
| ESA's Draco To Study Heat Of Reentry |
| The United States Space Academy Is Official |
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
