Earth (Red Sun)

Earth was once a planet that was roughly 15,098,232 km from the sun. It was destroyed in a collision with another planet four billion.

Naming
Earth was the name of Parthenon's brother. Earth was a warrior who withstood the harshest of battles, sacrificing himself for the other gods against Rao, the god of Fire. Legend has it that when Rao turned on the other gods and began to hunt down the gods, Earth was the one who kept Rao at the gates of Ceres, preventing Rao from destroying Greenland.

However, since Rao was defeated, the mortal world plunged into an ice age (Around the time this legend was written, there was an ice age on Ganymede).

Discovery
In 1873, Halley Prentice, a Nikulean astronomer discovered that Ceres' rings, several asteroids, and a small meteor that had struck Ganymede were all made from the same material. In 1945, a planetoid near the sun was discovered. Since its proximity to the sun, the planetoid could not be seen until now. It was hypothesized that several of Prentice's asteroids came from the planetoid and that it was struck by a large body.

In 1971, the massive impact hypothesis was proven correct. The planetoid and the asteroid field surrounding it was called Earth's Grave, or simply Earth.

In Fiction

 * Journey to Earth (1972)- A science fiction movie about a group of people colonizing Earth.
 * The Last Stand (1977)- A movie portraying the Earth/Rao battle.
 * Star Trek VI (1991)- Captain Kirk and Captain Picard discuss the Enterprise. Kirk says, "It's got the strongest shields and armor. She won't end up like Earth, provided she has a good pilot"
 * Solar Conquest (2003)- Video game where player colonizes the star systems. Earth is a hard-to-colonize place in the game.
 * Alternate Realities (2004)- Characters travel to different ATLs. They are dismayed to discover that it was likely that Ganymede would not be habitable in most timelines. Earth is a planet, along with two other planets. They travel to Earth at the time of 2004.
 * Solar Conquest II (2008)- Sequel to Solar Conquest. Player can colonize entire galaxy. Earth, again, is involved.
 * Alternate Realities (2010)- MMORPG spin-off to the Alternate Realities spin off. (Some players have created worlds very similar to ours and some of the ATLs on this site)

Future
The Sun is likely to either get bigger or recede in size. There are four outcomes:
 * 1) The Sun expands and Earth is completely destroyed.
 * 2) The Sun shrinks. Earth remains intact.
 * 3) Earth's orbit is pushed back. It suffers the same fate as Mars.
 * 4) Earth is ripped apart by solar winds.