Betelgeuse in fiction

Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis) is a red supergiant star in the constellation Orion that regularly appears or is referenced in science fiction:

[edit] Literature

Philip K. Dick references Betelgeuse in several novels and short stories. Occasionally the name of the star is punned upon and the characters are portrayed as large beetles, such as in "Shell Game," and "Tony and the Beetles."

In science fiction, Ford Prefect, a character in Douglas Adams's series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, hails from "a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse" as does his "semi-cousin" with whom he "shares three of the same mothers" Zaphod Beeblebrox. Various references to residents and places on the planets orbiting Betelgeuse (e.g. Zaphod's 'favourite mother' Mrs. Alice Beeblebrox, resident of 10⁸ Astral Crescent, Zoovroozlechester, Betelgeuse V) are made throughout most versions of the Guide saga.

In August Derleth's take on H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, Betelgeuse is the home of the 'benign' Elder Gods.

In Calculating God, a science-fiction novel by Robert J. Sawyer, Betelgeuse becomes a supernova, threatening all life within several hundred light-years. The novel assumes that the gamma ray flux from the supernova is many times that currently estimated by astronomers.

In Kurt Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan, Winston Niles Rumfoord has fallen into a spatial phenomenon known as the chronosynclastic infundibulum and has become "one node of a wave phenomenon extending all the way from the Sun to Betelgeuse."

In Pierre Boulle's novel Planet of the Apes, the planet upon which the majority of the story takes place orbits Betelgeuse.

In the science fiction series Perry Rhodan book 40 (english sequence number) Red Eye of Betelgeuse, and book 41 The Earth Dies both by Clark Dalton, Perry Rhodan plays a ruse to convince his enemies that they have discovered the secret location of Earth around the third planet of Betelgeuse, which is then promptly destroyed making the Betelgeuse system a binary star, but giving the real Earth some breathing time.

In the story Transit of Betelgeuse by Robert Chase, published in the magazine Analog Science Fiction and Fact in May 1990, a rescue in space is attempted in the last few hours before the supernova explosion of Betelguese begins with a blast of neutrinos. In the sequel, Endeavor, Analog July/August 2005, the rescue has more or less succeeded, but the ship Endeavor has to escape the supernova remnant expanding at 1% the speed of light behind it, while coping with other problems.

Tharg the Mighty, the (fictional) editor of the British comic anthology 2000AD since 1978, hails from Betelgeuse, along with his sister Marg. A rudimentary Betelgeusian vocabulary has been developed in the comic.
Bételgeuse is a comic series by Léo, which is set on a planet circling Betelgeuse.
In the world of Bucky O'Hare, Betelgeuse is the home to muscular orange-furred baboons.

In the computer game Star Control 2, Betelgeuse is also the star upon which the second homeworld of the Syreen orbits.
In Battletech, Betelgeuse is home to Aldis Industries and Firmir Weaponry, military defence industries of the Capellan Confederation.

See also Star names in popular culture: Betelgeuse.

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