The Sun, as the energy-source which permits life to exist on Earth, was widely worshipped in the ancient world. After the Copernican Revolution it became the hub of the Universe, but with the advent of a broader view of the cosmos it lost some of its prestige. Scientists, philosophers andProto SF authors such as AthanasiusKircher thought it likely to be inhabited, a view which persisted until as late as 1795. Even in the nineteenth century some speculative writers considered it a world like any other and included it in cosmic tours; examples are the anonymousJourneys into the Moon, Several Planets and the Sun (1837) and Joel RPeabody'sA World of Wonders (1838). Several early sf stories, assuming the Sun to be sustained by combustion, anticipated the day when it would burn out; examples are CamilleFlammarion'sOmega (1893-1894), H GWells'sThe Time Machine (1895), George CWallis's "The Last Days of Earth" (July 1901Harmsworth Magazine) and William HopeHodgson'sThe House on the Borderland (1908) (seeEnd of the World). A final catastrophe to the Sun is forever imminent in JackVance's tales of theDying Earth. Clark AshtonSmith recalls the imagery of Hodgson's novel in "Phoenix" (inTime to Come, anth1954, ed AugustDerleth), a poignant but anachronistic story about the reignition of the dying Sun (by the time the story was written – in the 1930s – it had long been known that the Sun produced heat by nuclear fusion), an idea ingeniously recapitulated in GeneWolfe'sThe Book of the New Sun (1980-1983 4vols). Although the Sun's surface temperature had been established spectroscopically in the 1890s, JohnMastin was still able to imagine, inThrough the Sun in an Airship (1909), exactly such a voyage, and HKaner setThe Sun Queen (1946) on a sunspot.

J B SHaldane's "The Last Judgment" (inPossible Worlds, coll1927) and OlafStapledon'sLast and First Men (1930) imagine changes in the Sun's brilliance as crucial factors in Man's futureEvolution. In "Ark of Fire" (3 April 1938American Weekly) by John Hawkins the Earth is moved nearer to the Sun, with predictable consequences for surface life. In numerousDisaster stories the Sun goes nova, although some humans usually manage to escape, as in J TMcIntosh'sOne in Three Hundred (February 1953F&SF; exp1954). In EdmondHamilton's "Thundering Worlds" (March 1934Weird Tales) the nine planets themselves become interstellar wanderers, accelerating towards a newStar. In Arthur CClarke's "Rescue Party" (May 1946Astounding)Aliens arrive to save mankind but find that their aid is unnecessary, and in NormanSpinrad'sThe Solarians (1966) the nova is induced to destroy an alien spacefleet, while the human race makes its escape. In EdwardWellen'sHijack (1971) disinformation about such a nova is used in order to trick the Mafia into hijacking a spacefleet and blasting off for the stars. Stories which make a detailed study of reactions to the news that the Sun may go nova include HughKingsmill's "The End of the World" (inThe Dawn's Delay, coll1924), LarryNiven's "Inconstant Moon" (inAll the Myriad Ways, coll1971), in which the disaster proves to be a brief and just barely survivable (for America if not Europe) solar flare, and DavidLangford's sardonic comedy "Heatwave" (inNew Writings in SF 27, anth1975, ed KennethBulmer). Eric CWilliams's "Sunout" (inNew Writings in SF 5, anth1965, ed JohnCarnell) deals similarly with the futility of any human response to the scientific prediction that the sun may soon go out, which at the story's close it does. The hero of George OSmith'sTroubled Star (1953) discovers thatAliens want to make the Sun into a variable star so that it may serve as an interstellar lighthouse. Other unscrupulous aliens plan to detonate the Sun to assist the next leg of their interstellar voyaging in LarryNiven's "The Fourth Profession" (inQUARK/4, anth1971, ed Samuel RDelany and MarilynHacker) and in StephenBaxter'sSpace: Manifold 2 (2000; vtManifold: Space2000). The filmSunshine (2007) features an implausible space mission to restart the ailing Sun and save the world from permanent winter.

The notion that the Sun might be the abode of life is developed in OlafStapledon'sThe Flames (1947), Arthur CClarke's "Out of the Sun" (February 1958If), EdmondHamilton's "Sunfire!" (September 1962Amazing) and DavidBrin'sSundiver (1980). Sun-consuming lifeforms hatch out of the planets in JackWilliamson's improbable "Born of the Sun" (March 1934Astounding). The idea thatStars might be living beings has been developed on several occasions (seeLiving Worlds), but not often applied to our own Sun; one exception isDogsbody (1975) by Diana WynneJones, while GregoryBenford's and GordonEklund's "If the Stars are Gods" (inUniverse 4, anth1974, ed TerryCarr; incorporated intoIf the Stars Are Gods, fixup1977) is ambiguous in this respect. The Sun's significance as a religious symbol is further exploited inThe Day the Sun Stood Still (anth1972) edited by RobertSilverberg, which comprises three novellas based on the premise that the miracle granted to Joshua so that he could win a vital battle might be repeated tomorrow to persuade mankind of the reality of divine power.

The Sun often figures inGenre SF as a potential disaster area ready to consumeSpaceships which stray too close; examples are WillyLey's "At the Perihelion" (February 1937Astounding as by Robert Willey; vt "A Martian Adventure" inGreat Science Fiction By Scientists, anth1962, ed GroffConklin), Eric FrankRussell's "Jay Score" (May 1941Astounding), Ray Bradbury's "The Golden Apples of the Sun" (November 1953Planet Stories), HalClement's "Sunspot" (November 1960Analog), PoulAnderson's "What'll You Give?" (April 1963Analog as by Winston P Sanders; vt "Que Donn'rez Vous?" inTales of the Flying Mountains, fixup1970) and GeorgeCollyn's "In Passage of the Sun" (July 1966New Worlds). The weather technicians of Theodore LThomas's "The Weather Man" (June 1962Analog), however, skim across the surface of the Sun in "sessile boats" in order to control its radiation output (seeWeather Control). A spate of dangerous radiation from the Sun plays a key role in Philip EHigh'sThe Prodigal Sun (1964), which was presumably written around its awful titular pun; the Earth is saved through the creation of an artificial shielding layer of gas in the upper atmosphere (see alsoArrested Development). A spectacular close encounter by a solarSpace Station takes place in Charles LHarness'sFlight into Yesterday (May 1949Startling; exp1953; vtThe Paradox Men1955 dos; rev1984) – climaxing with a fatal descent into a sunspot – and an even more spectacular one in DavidBrin'sSundiver (1980). For many years Brin's was the sf novel which dealt most extensively and most scrupulously with modern scientific knowledge about the Sun. Also intensively researched isSunstorm (2005) by Arthur CClarke and StephenBaxter, in which Earth's biosphere is threatened with extinction by a vast 2037 solar flare – the culmination of disturbances initiated by aJupiter-sized planet steered into the Sun byAliens two millennia previously. By way of defence an artificial shield is constructed in space at the L1Lagrange Point.

One curious aspect of the Sun's behaviour, the 11-year sunspot cycle discovered by Heinrich Schwabe (1789-1875) in 1851, is hypothetically correlated with Earthly events in Clifford DSimak's "Sunspot Purge" (November 1940Astounding) and PhilipLatham's "Disturbing Sun" (May 1959Astounding); a sunspot heralds the grim conclusion of Robert AHeinlein's story of cycles run amok, "The Year of the Jackpot" (March 1952Galaxy).

TheSolar Wind (which see) is featured in a number of sf stories. [BS/DRL]

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