Elizabeth Stanway

Public perceptions of scientific understanding are most often mediated through intermediate channels - including direct outreach efforts, news media and fictionalised scenarios in the form of science fiction. At its best, science fiction provides a powerful tool for widening awareness of and public engagement with aspects of scientific innovation - in particular in astronomy. At its worst, it can distort or entirely misrepresent scientific understanding or the nature of scientific enquiry. Either way, it provides an interesting historical record of the way astronomy and its discoveries are being represented to the public at a point in time - in particular to the children of the past who are the decision makers of the present. In this poster I will discuss representations of our Solar System and the science of astronomy in historical science fiction narratives and what they tell us about the way both understanding and communication of knowledge about our Universe has changed over time.