In Science and Science Fiction
In several modern Romance languages, terra (or French terre) is the name of planet Earth. Many science fiction authors call the planet Terra, following post-classical Latin astronomical terminology. In Warhammer 40,000 this is taken a step further, with Earth being referred to as Holy Terra. The term Terran is used by Philip K. Dick in many of his short stories. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Solar System is called the Terran system.
Authors who have used Tellus include C. S. Lewis in his Space Trilogy; E. E. Smith in his Lensman series; and Robert A. Heinlein in several of the stories in his Future History sequence. The chemical element Tellurium was named after Tellus by Martin Heinrich Klaproth in 1798.
Read more about this topic: Terra (mythology)
Famous quotes containing the words science fiction, science and/or fiction:
“Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. We can’t talk about science, because our knowledge of it is limited and unofficial, and usually our fiction is dreadful.”
—Philip K. Dick (1928–1982)
“Everything is becoming science fiction. From the margins of an almost invisible literature has sprung the intact reality of the 20th century.”
—J.G. (James Graham)
“The society would permit no books of fiction in its collection because the town fathers believed that fiction ‘worketh abomination and maketh a lie.’”
—For the State of Rhode Island, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)