Solar System in fiction Solar System in fiction The Solar System and its various bodies (planets, asteroids, moons, etc.) were the earliest objects to be treated as fictional locations in works of science fiction. Among these, imaginary voyages to and explorations of Earth's Moon are found in seventeenth century literature. By the early twentieth century, following the increase in scientific and technological development spurred by the Industrial Revolution, fictional journeys to (or from) the Solar System's other planets had become common in fiction. Early literature regarding the Solar System, following scientific speculations dating back to the 17th century, assumed that every planet hosted its
IAU definition of planet IAU definition of planet The International Astronomical Union (IAU) defined in August 2006 that, in the Solar System, a planet is a celestial body which: Among other things, this definition caused Pluto to no longer be a planet, a change from how it had been widely considered until that point. A non-satellite body fulfilling only the first two of these criteria (such as Pluto) is classified as a "dwarf planet". According to the IAU, "planets and dwarf planets are two distinct classes of objects". A non-satellite body fulfilling only the first criterion is termed a "small Solar System body" (SSSB).