History Main / BabyPlanet

* ''VideoGame/OuterWilds'' takes place in a baby solar system, with planets as small as 500 meters across separated by a few kilometers of empty space between them. Since the game models real-world astrophysics to these planets, it gives an idea of what it might be like to actually be on one; For example, the gravitational pull of moon orbiting Timber Hearth is strong enough to be felt, making objects on level surfaces slowly roll in its direction and affecting the arc of jumps.

* ''VideoGame/AngryBirds Space'' features many levels with small planetoids that have gravity bubbles that affect the birds' trajectories.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-756 SCP-756]] is this trope up to eleven, with an entire solar system fitting inside a room. And there's ''life'' on a couple of the planets. No-one's allowed to stick glow-in-the-dark stars to the walls.

* The planet Auraxis in ''VideoGame/PlanetSide 1'' has a tiny surface area, less than 1000 km
, along with a thin atmosphere which cannot sustain air-breathing engines past 400m above sea level. Being heavily infused with [[PreCursors Ancient Vanu technology]], it has been [[WildMassGuessing theorized]] that the planet has a black hole in its core to provide gravity. The sequel has the same issue of tiny scale -- in fact, it's even smaller - but almost triples the flight ceiling.

Although SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale, they usually aren't this far off the mark on accident; this trope usually comes about either because of limitations in technology's ability to represent planets in a realistic scale or just for the sake of aesthetic.

* Neutron stars are stellar remnants that pack 1-2 solar masses into a nearly-perfect sphere around 10 kilometers across. Their gravitational pull, about 200 billion times stronger at their surface than on Earth, is stronger than anything except a black hole.

* In Jack Vance's short story "We'll Build Your Dream Castle", retreats for the super-rich are built on a few dozen chunks of super-dense matter in orbit near Earth.

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[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_gateway_galaxy_transparent.png]]]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In ''Manga/GoodnightPunpun'', Punpun dreams up a small meteor that fits the bill, which he names Punpunia. It's really only big enough for his house, family, and a few stray animals.
* Mildian in ''Manga/EdensZero'' is a very tiny planet with a noticeable curvature from ground level, enough to make the main characters confident that the first building they come across on the planet is probably the ''only'' one.

* Creator/CarlBarks' Uncle Scrooge comic "Island in the Sky" features a couple of asteroids that are somehow capable of supporting life. They also orbit each other closely enough to share an atmosphere.
* The Dutch comic ''[[ComicBook/StormDonLawrence Storm]]'' has this as a common sight in the solar system the later albums are set in.

[[folder:Film]]
* The CGI shots of the Earth in ''Film/{{Zombieland}}'' (which are apparently the mental images of the narrator).
* The movie ''Film/{{Timelock}}'' is set on a prison asteroid. It is at least established to be ''very cold'' outside (and the worst offenders are hung outside in a state of suspended animation). Then the movie goes and violates its own logic at the end when [[spoiler:Riley sticks three small nuclear devices on Villum and knocks him into an abyss. Villum is shown ''alive and well'' in the very last minute of the movie]].

* [[GeniusLoci Ego the Living Planet]] in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'' is the size of Earth's moon with Earthlike air and gravity.

* "Asteroid B-612" from Antoine de Saint-Exupery's ''Literature/TheLittlePrince'' may be the TropeCodifier, if not the {{Trope Maker|s}}. It's house-sized, which makes it ''bigger'' than most neighboring planets. And he keeps encountering new stuff on it every day, including baobab trees.
* Justified in Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/{{Protector}}'' due to the use of gravity generators, etc.

* The Creator/FredricBrown story ''Placet is a Crazy Place'' features a tiny planet with a breathable atmosphere with a core made of extra-dense 'heavy' matter to give it its shape and gravity. It even has life forms made of heavy matter that "fly" through the crust (which is like air to them since they are so dense), causing earthquakes. It obviously suffers from the "what keeps the heavy matter from expanding" problem, but might be excused since it is a story from the 40s and ScienceMarchesOn. Also, the heavy matter "birds" that cause earthquakes are completely 100% excused by the RuleOfFunny; the buildings on Placet are small and light, and never last more than three weeks. The birds fly right through the foundations.
* In Jack Vance's short story "We'll Build Your Dream Castle", retreats for the super-rich are built on a few dozen chunks of super-dense matter in orbit near Earth.
* Gary Gibson's ''Literature/StealingLight'' has at least one asteroid fitted with a Shoal 'world engine', and their Coreships.
* In ''Literature/TheLightFantastic'', the great world turtle Great A'Tuin ushers eight eggs into the world, each hatching to reveal a perfectly formed baby turtle, each supporting on its back a group of elephant calves which on their back support a proto-Discworld. These then swim from the shores of harsh reality back into the depths of the improbable part of the universe that supports such things.
* The backstory of ''Literature/HouseOfSuns'' features a planetoid that held the Gentian household in the distant past. It had standard Earth gravity which was hinted to be due to a small black hole contained within the planetoid.

* ''Literature/LorienLegacies'': Lorien is one-tenth the size of Earth and Mogadore one fifth.
* Creator/NKJemisin's ''Literature/InheritanceTrilogy'': The TricksterGod Sieh has a collection of stars and planets the size of toy balls, some of which like to follow him around. Their real nature is ambiguous until the third book, when he puts some of them back in space, undoes the spell keeping them miniaturized, and proves that the "Stole the sun for a prank" PlaygroundSong about him is NotHyperbole.

** {{Subverted|Trope}} in "I Shot An Arrow Into The Air". Some shipwrecked astronauts think they're on such an asteroid: they're actually on Earth!

* ''Series/{{Lexx}}'':
** Season 2 had something like this, a small planetoid with an artificial atmosphere that was a TV studio center. Our 'heroes' wind up there and find that if their ratings slide they'll be in trouble.
** In one episode, a planetoid was so small you could see grazing sheep on its surface from orbit. For unexplained reasons, it had Earthlike gravity.
* Aversion: In the original ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' episode "That Which Survives" the fact that a Luna-sized world has Earthlike atmosphere is one of the clues that something's amiss.
* The official atlas for the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' verse says even the small moons, barely large enough to be balls (think Mimas or Enceladus), are terraformed using gravitic technology.

* The zoom out at the end of the [[https://youtu.be/KDbPYoaAiyc?t=247 music video]] for Music/{{Bjork}}'s "Human Behavior" reveals the story to be set on a tiny planet.

[[folder:Theater]]
* Molag spends most of ''Theatre/{{Firebringer}}'' walking in a straight line, trying to reach the edge of the world. By the end of the play (which doesn't seem to be more than a few days or weeks), she's gone all the way around the world and come back to the tribe.

* ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' has featured planets like this, usually as side levels, since ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando''. The two in that game were both locations that Giant Clank flew to to fight enemies: the first saw him face the Thugs 4 Less leader in a mecha duel, while the second was a fight against a Flying Saucer that kept spawning tripod mechas. [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere And its presence was not explained in any way]].
* ''VideoGame/SpaceEngineers'' finds itself somewhere in between. Planets are ''massive''; their curvature is only visible from tens of thousands of meters up, but they're still small enough that the developers had to add special code to flatten out the terrain when at a distance so they actually look round. There are actual asteroids, which are fittingly atmosphere-less and gravity-less, but are unreasonably tiny, frequently no more than a few dozen meters in diameter.
* ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}''. The planets look regular-sized from close but appear increasingly tiny as you advance towards the Space Stage. To give you an idea of scale: You can find Earth. The UK is about the size of an average spaceship.
* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts''. One of the unique artistic features in [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI the first game]] was condensing of most of the Disney worlds into miniature planets, most of which could be seen from 'space'. The worlds themselves, while modeled after the various Disney worlds, tend to be as small as possible, no more than a few miles each. The residents don't seem to notice.
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' not only has baby planets; it has ''baby galaxies''. As in, galaxies that're not much bigger than a large [[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/paddock paddock.]] And with several galaxies, you can look off into the distance and see a single planet bigger than the entire galaxy.
** And don't forget the [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter Lumas]], who transform into these miniature planets and galaxies when they mature, making them ''literally'' baby planets.
* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** ''VideoGame/SonicCD'' takes place on the appropriately named Little Planet, which appears over Never Lake once a year. It reappears in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4'' and ''VideoGame/SonicMania''.
** The ''VideoGame/BlueSphere'' Special Stages of ''VideoGame/{{Sonic 3 and Knuckles}}'' take place on small, checkerboarded planetoids (they're actually donut-shaped, but visually spherical).
** In ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', Rouge has a large stage called Mad Space, which features tiny planetoids similar to those later seen in the ''Super Mario Galaxy'' series. They pull Rouge into their gravitational field if she jumps or glides too close. One of them is cylindrical in shape. Possibly justified, since the fact that they're near the space colony ARK suggests they may be artificial.
%% * The cover of ''VideoGame/SimCity Societies''.
%%* ''VideoGame/PopulousTheBeginning''
* The Prince Planet in ''VideoGame/KatamariDamacy'' (very obviously based on Literature/TheLittlePrince's) as well as Earth itself if you get big enough to notice the curvature.

%% * The freeware game ''Frozzd'' features dozens of such planets.

* In ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'', you fight Raphael the Raven on one of these. To be clear, it ''is'' the world's moon.

%%* ''[[http://www.colibrigames.com/ The Tiny Bang Story.]]''
* ''VideoGame/{{Albion}}''. The titular planet is considerably smaller than Earth but is mostly made up of exceptionally heavy metal, making the planet's mass just slightly smaller than Earth's.
* ''VideoGame/AngryBirds Space'' features many levels with small planetoids that have gravity bubbles that affect the birds' trajectories.
* Planets in ''VideoGame/PlanetaryAnnihilation'' range between this and more reasonable sizes, depending on the settings used. Nevertheless, they're much closer than would really be possible, in order that interplanetary travel doesn't take ages.
* ''VideoGame/IncobotoMini'' has the main character running across several small planets as part of the gameplay.
* One of your party members in ''VideoGame/{{Anachronox}}'' is an entire miniaturized planet, Democratus. This is however not it's natural state, when first encountered it is normal size and also has to return to normal size in an emergency in a late section of the plot, scattering the rest of the party across the surface and sending them on short solo adventures.
* The planet Auraxis in ''VideoGame/PlanetSide 1'' has a tiny surface area, less than 1000 km^2, along with a thin atmosphere which cannot sustain air-breathing engines past 400m above sea level. Being heavily infused with [[PreCursors Ancient Vanu technology]], it has been [[WildMassGuessing theorized]] that the planet has a black hole in its core to provide gravity. The sequel has the same issue of tiny scale - in fact, it's even smaller - but almost triples the flight ceiling.
* This is [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] in ''VideoGame/{{Rodina}}''. The asteroids are too small to support atmospheres, but they do have enough gravity for you to walk on without floating into space.
* ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'' and its various analogues for various real-life Solar System bodies are scaled down from reality by a factor of ten. They still have approximately the same gravity, however, meaning either the planets are denser than any known substance, or that the Kerbal-verse has an increased constant of gravitation. Kerbin in particular, despite being only 600km in radius, still manages a very Earth-like 9.81 meters per second per second and a life-supporting atmosphere. For those that want additional challenge, [[GameMod Real Solar System]] scales the planets, moons, and star back up to real-world sizes.

* ''VideoGame/{{Deiland}}:'' This survival/crafting game takes place on a planet which has a diameter of about 60 feet/20 metres. It has an Earth-like gravity and atmosphere and a temperate climate. Population: one.
* ''VideoGame/PopulousTheBeginning'': each level of the game takes place in a different small planet, which all form part of a small solar system. Though some of them seem to actually be moons, as they are orbiting around another of the planets (which isn't significantly bigger than them).

* ''{{VideoGame/Aether}}'': It takes about 12 seconds to traverse the circumference of most of the planets. The moons are even smaller.

* Exaggerated in ''[[VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth]]'' with the Tiny Planet item, which consists of a baseball-sized planetoid embedded in Isaac's head. It even has its own gravitational field, making every tear Isaac shoots orbit him.

* ''WebAnimation/{{Brackenwood}}'' itself is not as small as many examples -- you can't see its curvature from the surface, at least -- but still small enough for Bitey to circumnavigate it in a few minutes of running and for individual mountains to visibly stick out from orbit; far smaller than should be able to support [[SingleBiomePlanet a vast, pole-to-pole forest]].
%%* [[http://www.weebls-stuff.com/onthemoon/ Anything Can Happen On the Moon.]]

* In "Too High, Too Far, Too Soon," the WebAnimation/BravestWarriors come across a planet that is both this and has a case of YearInsideHourOutside.

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': Prospit and Derse. If the size of the towers on their respective moons is any indication, they are smaller than a [[Franchise/StarWars Death Star]], though still quite big. This ultimately applies to almost every planet in the Incipisphere; the players' Lands are likely less than a hundred kilometers in diameter, small enough that at a fairly distant view the players' homes are still visible, [[{{Bizarrchitecture}} giant tower status]] notwithstanding. Skaia and The Battlefield within it are large but still fairly small for a planet.

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-756 SCP-756]] is this trope up to eleven, with an entire solar system fitting inside a room. And there's ''life'' on a couple of the planets. No one's allowed to stick glow-in-the-dark stars to the walls.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheClangers''' The Clanger Planet. It has vaguely moonlike craters, and in one episode a Lunar Module lands and an astronaut plants a flag (which the Clangers adopt as a tablecloth,) but it's referred to by the narrator as a "star" and exists among other similar worldlets. But since the Clangers occasionally leave it for the space above without any breathing problems, it runs strictly on Cartoon Physics.
* The ''Franchise/TransformersGeneration1'' portrayal of Cybertron. Curvature could often be seen, and buildings could be seen from space. When Cybertron was moved into Earth's orbit, it was shown to be smaller than the moon - close enough for a plane-bot to fly to in under a minute, and yet the entire planet could be easily seen whenever it was in frame. Asteroid-sized is generous, and yet it's shown to have gravity comparable to Earth.
** And then in the comics it's the size of Saturn. [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale Way too far the other way, guys.]]
*** Arguably, that issue is {{justified|Trope}} by the fact that [[ThatsNoMoon Cybertron itself is the body of]] [[PhysicalGod Primus]]. [[DoingInTheScientist Surely as a]] PhysicalGod, [[DoingInTheScientist he could whatever size he pleases, regardless of what the laws of physics say.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgersInTheTwentyFourthAndAHalfCentury'', Planet X gets reduced down to a rock that's barely large enough for Dodgers and Marvin the Martian to both stand on. Nonetheless, it still has air and some weird kind of gravity that allows someone to ''fall off''.
--> '''Duck Dodgers''': As I was saying, buster, this planet ain't big enough for the two of us, so off you go! ''(pushes Marvin off)'' Now, this planet is hereby claimed in the name of Earth by '''''[[LargeHam Duck Dodgers in the Twenty-Fourth-and-a-Half Century]]!'''''
--> '''Cadet''': A-a-a-a-big deal.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': In the season 2 finale, the family try to avoid being captured by the Galactic Federation by hiding on Dwarf Terrace 9. It is humanly inhabitable, but its circumference is about the size of a normal neighborhood. Morty can throw a frisbee across the surface and catch it from the other side with some practice.
* Some planets in ''WesternAnimation/BountyHamster'' are small enough that a reasonably fast ground vehicle can generally go around one in about ten seconds.

* A [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] ''Comicbook/{{Superboy}}'' story had Clark Kent travel to a small asteroid/planet, where he found someone with powers similar to his own. At the time, the preferred explanation for Superman's powers was that Krypton was larger than Earth, so the native race [[HeavyWorlder evolved to counteract the more powerful gravity]]. The boy on the asteroid, it turned out, was from Earth, so on his little world, he got to have some of the same benefits Superboy did. The native races of all 3 ecosystems evolved to be [[HumanAliens identical in size and shape]]...

* The Dutch comic [[ComicBook/StormDonLawrence Storm]] has this as a common sight in the solar system the later albums are set in.

%%* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank''

* The cover of ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing: Wild World'', and in addition, in-game the ground curves downward into the distance.

* The planet Auraxis in ''Videogame/PlanetSide 1'' has a tiny surface area, less than 1000 km^2, along with a thin atmosphere which cannot sustain air-breathing engines past 400m above sea level. Being heavily infused with [[PreCursors Ancient Vanu technology]], it has been [[WildMassGuessing theorized]] that the planet has a black hole in its core to provide gravity. The sequel has the same issue of tiny scale - in fact, it's even smaller - but almost triples the flight ceiling.

* ''VideoGame/{{Grow}}''

** ''VideoGame/SonicCD'' takes place on the appropriately named Little Planet, which appears in the sky once a year. It reappears in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4''.
** The Special Stages of ''VideoGame/{{Sonic 3 and Knuckles}}''.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-756 SCP-756]] is this trope up to eleven, with an entire solar system fitting inside a room.
--->"SCP-756 is a miniature solar system consisting of a single yellow sun and six orbiting planets, each with various moons and satellites."

* The cover of ''VideoGame/SimCity Societies''.

* The freeware game ''Frozzd'' features dozens of such planets.
* The American cover art for ''Bullfrog's Theme Park'' game.

55 ** Played straight in "The Lonely"

** Played straight in "The Lonely"

* ''Literature/TheNewWorldOfMrTompkins: Justified with a Baby Universe where the gravitational constant is enormous. Inverted in Relativity Land, which should be a black hole if gravity still works the same despite the speed of light being 30 mph or less.

* The Literature/MushroomPlanet in the eponymous novels.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': Dwarf Terrace 9 from the season 2 finale, which the family hides out on while trying to avoid being captured by the Galactic Federation. It's small enough that Morty can throw a frisbee across the surface and catch it from the other side with some practice, and its circumference is about the size of a normal neighborhood.

** In ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', Rouge has a large stage called Mad Space, which features tiny planetoids similar to those later seen in the ''Super Mario Galaxy'' series. They pull Rouge into their gravitational field if she jump or glides too close. One of them is cylindrical in shape.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': Dwarf Terrace 9 from the season 2 finale, which the family hides out on from the Galactic Federation. It's small enough that Morty can throw a frisbee across the surface and catch it from the other side with some practice, and its circumference is about the size of a normal neighborhood.

* Gary Gibson's ''Stealing Light'' has at least one asteroid fitted with a Shoal 'world engine', and their Coreships.

* ''VideoGame/OuterWilds'' takes place in a baby solar system, with planets as small as 500 meters across separated by a few kilometers of empty space between them.

* ''WebAnimation/{{Brackenwood}}'' itself is not as small as many examples, but still far smaller than should be able to support [[SingleBiomePlanet a vast, pole-to-pole forest]].
* [[http://www.weebls-stuff.com/onthemoon/ Anything Can Happen On the Moon.]]
* ''WebAnimation/{{Bee and PuppyCat}}'' has several examples.

* In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' the [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20070626.html planetoid of Fleen]] follows this trope, even to the point of depicting Literature/TheLittlePrince's asteroid floating nearby.

An inhabitable planet that is far smaller than astronomically possible, often less than a few functional miles in diameter. As a general rule, a Baby Planet is small enough that you can see its curvature even on the surface. In RealLife, a body this small would be called an asteroid or be a natural satellite orbiting a planet, and would usually be incapable of supporting an atmosphere (or rather, an atmosphere with enough pressure and warmth to support life), and would probably not even be spherical. But in fiction, these often sport [[AllPlanetsAreEarthLike an entire ecosystem]] awkwardly compressed into the minute available space.

Related to FloatingContinent. Not to be confused with ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet'', ItsASmallWorldAfterAll or {{Planetville}}.

* {{Exaggerated}} in ''Film/MenInBlack,'' as the [[MacGuffin plot centers around]] [[spoiler:a galaxy small enough to fit in the bauble of a cat's collar]].