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The iconic photo of Earth known as The Blue Marble, taken by the crew of Apollo 17 (1972). This and similar images might have popularized Earth as a theme in fiction. [1]: 138 The overwhelming majority of fiction is set on or features the Earth, as the only planet home to humans or known to have life.
The Kemlo books are a series of children's science fiction novels written by Reginald Alec Martin, under the pseudonym of E. C. Eliott. [1] The first book, Kemlo and the Crazy Planet was published in 1954; the fifteenth and final book in the series, Kemlo and the Masters of Space, was published in 1963.
The following formula approximates the Earth's gravity variation with altitude: = (+) where g h is the gravitational acceleration at height h above sea level. R e is the Earth's mean radius. g 0 is the standard gravitational acceleration.
The book describes Ganymede as having about 1 ⁄ 3 Earth gravity but in reality it is only about 1 ⁄ 7. Heinlein also postulated that the surface of Ganymede was volcanic rock like the Moon. Subsequent discoveries have shown that Ganymede's crust is actually almost 90 percent ice or frost, covering a subsurface ocean.
The existence of anti-gravity is a common theme in science fiction. [45] The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction lists Francis Godwin's posthumously-published 1638 novel The Man in the Moone, where a "semi-magical" stone has the power to make gravity stronger or weaker, as the earliest variation of the theme. [45]
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein about a lunar colony's revolt against absentee rule from Earth. The novel illustrates and discusses libertarian ideals. It is respected for its credible presentation of a comprehensively imagined future human society on both the Earth and the Moon.
At a fixed point on the surface, the magnitude of Earth's gravity results from combined effect of gravitation and the centrifugal force from Earth's rotation. [2] [3] At different points on Earth's surface, the free fall acceleration ranges from 9.764 to 9.834 m/s 2 (32.03 to 32.26 ft/s 2), [4] depending on altitude, latitude, and longitude.
Mesklin is a fictional planet created by Hal Clement and used in a number of his hard science fiction stories, starting with Mission of Gravity (1954). Alongside the novel's original 1953 serialization in Astounding Science Fiction, Clement published an essay titled "Whirligig World" detailing the process of designing the planet to have the properties he wanted.