Since 2009, the names of planets from the Dune novels have been adopted for the real-world nomenclature of plains and other features on Saturn’s moon Titan, like Arrakis Planitia.
In 1995, Isaac Asimov received….
In 1995, Isaac Asimov received a letter congratulating him on an accidental prediction of alpha-particle RAM errors in one of his 1950s novel “Caves of Steel”.
Jules Verne’s shelved 1863 novel…
Jules Verne’s shelved 1863 novel “Paris in the Twentieth Century” predicted gas-powered cars, fax machines, electric street lighting, maglev trains, the record industry, the internet. His publisher deemed it pessimistic and lackluster. It was discovered in 1989 and published 5 years later.
40 years before James Cameron’s…
40 years before James Cameron’s “Avatar” was released, the “Noon Universe” Russian sci-fi novels were published, set on a forest planet called Pandora in the 22nd century, inhabited by humanoids called Nave (compared to the “Na’vi” in Avatar).
There is a surviving fantasy novel written in the 2nd century AD in Roman Syria that features…
There is a surviving fantasy novel written in the 2nd century AD in Roman Syria that features explorers flying to the moon, a first encounter with aliens, interplanetary war between imperialistic celestial kingdoms, and the discovery of a continent across the ocean