23 Lists of astronomical locations in fiction

Aldebaran is a type K5 giant star in the constellation Taurus that is frequently featured in works of science fiction. Aldebaran is a subject for ancient myths in multiple cultures and, in more recent times, the mythologizing of science fiction.

As one of the brightest stars in Earth's night sky, and the closest-known star system to the Sun, the Alpha Centauri system plays an important role in many fictional works of literature, popular culture, television, and film.

The study of black holes, gravitational sources so massive that even light cannot escape from them, goes back to the late 18th century. Major advances in understanding were made throughout the first half of the 20th century, with contributions from many prominent mathematical physicists, though the term black hole was only coined in 1967. With the development of general relativity other properties related to these entities came to be understood, and their features have been included in many notable works of fiction.

As the largest body in the asteroid belt, the likely dwarf planet Ceres frequently appears in science fiction:

Comets have, through the centuries, appeared in numerous works of fiction. In earliest times they were seen as portents, either of disaster or of some great historical change. As knowledge of comets increased, comets came to be imagined not just as symbols, but as powerful forces in their own right, capable of causing disaster. More recently, comets have been described as destinations for space travelers.

The planetary systems of stars other than the Sun and the Solar System are a staple element in much science fiction. Epsilon Eridani is the fifth-brightest star in the riverine southern constellation of Eridanus. An orange star slightly smaller and less massive than the Sun, and relatively close to the Solar System, it is frequently featured in works of science fiction. It is classified as a type K2 star, with the corresponding suggestion that it has a stable habitable zone and is well suited for life. However, one factor which weakens the case for habitability is its youth—as little as 200 million years old—and consequent high levels of ultraviolet emission.

Fomalhaut is a class A star on the main sequence approximately 25 light-years (7.7 pc) from the Sun. It is the brightest star in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus and at magnitude 1.2 is one of the brightest stars in the sky.

The planet Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, is a popular backdrop for science fiction stories and films. Early works of science fiction used Jupiter itself as a location for stories, but modern science has shown that the planet has no solid surface one could land on and that its atmosphere, temperature, high gravity and intense radiation is hostile to human life. As a result, the Jovian system as a whole, including both the space around Jupiter and its very extensive system of moons, is a more common setting for science fiction.

Jupiter's extensive system of natural satellites – in particular the four large Galilean moons – has been a common science fiction setting.

Fictional representations of Mars have been popular for over a century. Interest in Mars has been stimulated by the planet's dramatic red color, by early scientific speculations that its surface conditions might be capable of supporting life, and by the possibility that Mars could be colonized by humans in the future. Almost as popular as stories about Mars are stories about Martians engaging in activity away from their home planet.

The planet Mercury has often been used as a setting in science fiction. Recurring themes include the dangers of being exposed to solar radiation and the possibility of escaping excessive radiation by staying within the planet's slow-moving terminator. Another recurring theme is autocratic governments, perhaps because of an association of Mercury with hot-temperedness. Nonetheless, there may be scientific support, based on studies reported in March 2020, for considering that parts of the planet may have been habitable, and perhaps that actual life forms, albeit likely primitive microorganisms, may have existed on the planet after all.

The planet Neptune has been used as a reference and setting in various films and works of fiction:In H. G. Wells's short story "The Star", Neptune is destroyed in a collision with another supermassive object which reduces its orbital velocity to zero; the wreckage falls into the Sun, narrowly missing Earth. In the Captain Future series, Neptune is portrayed as a sea planet, not out of any scientific theory but evidently because Neptune is the Roman sea god. In Olaf Stapledon's 1930 epic novel Last and First Men, Neptune is the final home of the highly evolved human race. The planet is depicted as having a dense atmosphere but with a solid surface. In Hugh Walters' 1968 novel Nearly Neptune, the first manned expedition to Neptune ends in apparent disaster as a fire destroys vital equipment on board the spacecraft as it nears the planet. The majority of the 1997 science fiction horror film Event Horizon takes place in orbit around Neptune with the eponymous space ship Event Horizon reappearing in a decaying orbit around Neptune after a seven year disappearance. In the 2019 science fiction movie Ad Astra Neptune is the destination of the protagonist, who wants to stop destructive waves of antimatter coming from a malfunctioning space station that orbits the planet. In Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Neptune is the setting for the multiplayer map, Frontier, which takes place on a space station orbiting the planet. The humorous short story, "The Elephants on Neptune" by Mike Resnick, was published in Asimov's Science Fiction, and was nominated for both a Hugo and a Nebula award (2001). The pilot of the TV movie Virtuality centers around a starship preparing to make a flyby of Neptune before leaving the Solar System. The Star Trek: Enterprise pilot episode "Broken Bow" briefly mentions Neptune, with Jonathan Archer saying that at Warp 4.5 speed, it is possible to fly to "Neptune and back [to Earth] in six minutes." In the point and click game Anastronaut: The Moon Hopper, the player visits the planet Neptune in a future setting. In the manga and anime series Sailor Moon, one of the supporting characters is named Sailor Neptune; she is also known as Michiru Kaioh. She fights along with the other Outer Senshi for the Moon Kingdom and protect the Solar System from outside enemies. She carries a talisman known as Deep Aqua Mirror and her powers are based in deep water. In the cartoon series Futurama, the character Robot Santa Claus has his heavily fortified home base on the north pole of Neptune. In The Fairly OddParents episode "Wishology! Part 3: The Final Ending," Poof went to Neptune to make a magic wand. The Doctor Who episode "Sleep No More" is set on a space station orbiting Neptune. In the Hyperdimension Neptunia video game series, Neptune is the goddess of the nation known as Planeptune. The French comics Les Fantômes de Neptune (2015), by Valp is a steampunk adventure. The stories begin on Europa, a moon of Jupiter, and continue on Neptune.

Pluto has been featured in many instances of science fiction and popular culture. Initially classified as a planet upon its discovery in 1930, Pluto has also received considerable publicity following a 2006 definition of planet decree and from the flyby of the New Horizons space probe in July 2015.

The picturesque planet Saturn is featured in numerous works of science fiction. Early works of science fiction used Saturn itself as a location for stories, but modern science has shown that the planet has no solid surface on which one could land, and that its atmosphere and temperature are hostile to human life. As a result, the Saturnian system as a whole, including its planetary rings and its extensive system of moons, is a more common setting for science fiction.

Several of Saturn's natural satellites have figured prominently in works of science fiction.

The planetary systems of stars other than the Sun and the Solar System are a staple element in much science fiction. Sirius, a double star system with the binary designation Sirius AB, is the brightest stellar object in the night sky. Its component stars are Sirius A and Sirius B.

Tau Ceti is a star that hosts a planetary system and a common locale in much science fiction. It 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.

The planet Uranus has appeared in various forms of fiction:

The planetary systems of stars other than the Sun and its solar system are a staple element in much science fiction. Vega is a blue-white star in the constellation Lyra that is frequently featured in works of science fiction. Like its bright cousins Sirius, Deneb, and Altair, it is classified as a star of spectral type A. Roughly two and a half times the size of the sun, it is 40 times as luminous and, together with Arcturus and Sirius, one of the most radiant stars in the galactic neighborhood. Its luminosity joins with its relative proximity to the Earth—it is only 25 light-years away—to make it the fifth-brightest star in the night sky. Vega is rendered decidedly oblate by its rapid rate of rotation, and since it is pole-on to the sun, it appears significantly larger to earthbound observers than it actually is. For this and a variety of other reasons Vega has been extensively studied by astronomers, leading it to be termed "arguably the next most important star in the sky after the sun."

Fictional representations of the planet Venus have existed since the 19th century. Its impenetrable cloud cover gave science fiction writers free rein to speculate on conditions at its surface; all the more so when early observations showed that not only was it very similar in size to Earth, it possessed a substantial atmosphere. Closer to the Sun than Earth, the planet was frequently depicted as warmer, but still habitable by humans. The genre reached its peak between the 1930s and 1950s, at a time when science had revealed some aspects of Venus, but not yet the harsh reality of its surface conditions.

An Einstein–Rosen bridge, or wormhole, is a postulated method, within the general theory of relativity, of moving from one point in space to another without crossing the space between. Wormholes are a popular feature of science fiction as they allow faster-than-light interstellar travel within human timescales.