Let's talk SciFi! (Oh, woah, who could have seen that one coming! XD) 1/17

The awesome @astrosnat talked about scifi last week as well but I would like to touch on things a bit more, with an "Exoplanet" focus :D 2/17

It is widely accepted that Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is the start of the Science Fiction genre in 1818, though things didn't immediately take off (or at least not noticeable so) 3/17

But the now famous Jules Verne starts doing his thing in 1849 with "Journey to the Center of the Earth". He wrote several books that involved space and space travel but overall stayed in our solar system. 4/17

H.G. Wells also famously wrote SciFi with space themes in mind. "The Time Machine" was released in 1895 so like Verne, he did not start with space. In 1898, "War of the Worlds" was released. Again, staying in our solar system. 4/17

Space themes and travel gain in popularity, the main planetary focuses being on the Moon and Mars (Like "John Carter of Mars" in 1912) 5/17

Science Fiction magazine-like serials start showing up during the early 20th century. It is possible planets outside our solar system start popping up at this time, but I haven't got to really dig into those properly. 6/17

But! Things start getting pretty exciting in the 1930's! Silent SciFi films have already hit the world and more print serials are forming or changing. We have "King Kong" on the big screen, "Brave New World" in here, H.G. Wells making predictions on the future, etc. 7/17

We also have Superman. 1938, a superhero from a distant planet, around a different star (I would love to read those first comics to see what details are added later and what has been there the entire time!) 8/17

During these years, an incredible amount of space SciFi is created. We have Arthur C. Clarke getting started, releasing his first SciFi short in 1946. The 1950's and several years after bring the world much of the SciFi that are still household titles today 9/17

Due to the vast amount of famous SciFi during this time frame of 20 or 30 years, and not wanting to take up all your time on this, I am going to skip ahead to Star Trek. (You knew I had to talk about this one!) 10/17

Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek" hit the airwaves in 1964. By this time in SciFi, fantastic aliens and space travel were almost old hat. Many feel that Star Trek brought SciFi to a wider audience, outside of those who'd already be reading this genre. (need more research) 11/17

Star Trek rather famously has an opening line that includes "strange new worlds"...Exoplanets! 12/17

Fun fact- Star Trek: The Original Series lived and died before the Apollo 11 moon landing 13/17

Fun fact- there were three seasons of the original TV series, an animated series, 6 full-length films, and a second live-action TV series that was already halfway through it's fifth season before the first confirmed discovery of a "Strange new world" 14/17

In 1977, we went to a "Galaxy far, far away" in "Star Wars: A New Hope", in 1980, "The Empire Strikes Back", and in 1983, "Return of the Jedi". More distant planets around distant stars (or two, like for Tatooine) and it was a surprise success. 15/17

I am going to leave it there for now, we have reached about the time that the line between "Science Fiction" and "Possibly already a thing in Science" becomes deliciously obscure at times 16/17

Exoplanets have been playing around in our collective imaginations for longer than many folks realize, and it is delightful 17/17