History Main / SpaceClouds

* ''Film/{{Serenity}}'': The Ion Cloud around Mr. Universe's planet. Humorously, in the commentary, Joss Whedon reveals that he's well-aware of how unrealistic it is:
-->'''Joss Whedon:''' I have no idea what an "ion cloud" is or why it would act like this, but we needed for that shot, so we have it.
* The Mutara Nebula in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' is [[TropeCodifier one of the best-known and most imitated examples]]. It has the effect of negating shields and limiting the ships inside to mostly visual reconnaissance, eliminating almost all of the advantages Khan had gained through his surprise attack on ''Enterprise'' early in the film.

* In ''Film/{{Solo}}'' Kessel is shown to be at the center of one, so thick that there's only one safe path in or out that is just barely wide enough for an Imperial Star Destroyer. Going off the path risks running into space icebergs, space monsters, black holes, or ''space rain'' ([[Franchise/StarWars the Galaxy Far Far Away]] is usually a rather soft sci-fi setting).

** In the episode "Year of Hell", a crippled ''Voyager'' hides inside a nebula so dense that it produces a visible fog ''inside'' the ship's corridors, on account of the ship being too damaged to otherwise keep the stuff out. (This implies that the nebula is ''denser'' than the atmosphere inside the ship.) Captain Janeway even orders the hull breaches sealed to avoid having an "indoor nebula."

* ''Series/BabylonFive'' mostly contented itself with pretty false-color nebulae as distant space backgrounds, but they succumbed fully to the trope in the climactic "Into the Fire" episode with a space battle zipping around the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula, one of Hubble's most famous photos.
* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' makes the mistake of showing nebulae as visible from close-up, especially with Lee flying through low-visibility conditions in the Ionian nebula. The cloud around New Caprica, which was likely held there because of the planet's gravity well, is more justified though.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': In "Hostage", the Liberator is attacked by a well-coordinated Federation taskforce, so they hide in a cloud of ionized particles. Just when they're congratulating themselves on evading their pursuers, they get hit by the ''real'' ambush and have to resort to a HyperspeedEscape at LudicrousSpeed, despite the risk that even a tiny particle penetrating their DeflectorShields could obliterate them.

* Played with in ''Pinball/{{Flash}}''. The backglass and playfield show the Earth as seen from space, surrounded by clouds and lightning bolts.

* ''Ishmael'' is MobySchtick InSpace by Australian theatre company Dead Puppet Society. Captain Ahab chases [[AsteroidMiner asteroids]] instead of {{Space Whale}}s, but one turns out to be a case of ThatsNoMoon, so Ahab pursues it into the Oort Cloud which is portrayed as per this trope, including [[HostileWeather lightning storms]]. Earlier Ishmael even mistakes a picture of the Oort Cloud for one of the Earth's surface, which is [[GaiasLament now covered in clouds due to environmental disaster]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'' has numerous nebulae that the player can travel through. One system even has a light blue nebula enveloping the entire system, looking like ''a bright, sunny day'' on Earth. The game also had a [[SpaceCompression number of other issues]].

* In ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'', purple nebula clouds ''a la'' ''[[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Wrath of Khan]]'' cover certain jump points. They disable sensors, and certain ones have plasma storms that halve reactor output for those within. Slugs make their home in nebula sectors.

* Played with in ''Franchise/MassEffect''; most nebulae are just there as pretty colours on the sector scale of the Galactic Map, and disappear once you zoom in to the star-system level. Some exceptions exist, though:

* Matter Splatter Galaxy from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'', which appears to be a cluster of ruins floating about in a thick green space cloud.

* In ''VideoGame/TenMinuteSpaceStrategy'', gas clouds can appear randomly on the map and disappear after several turns, though rather than being used as a cover, they can be occupied by your fighters to boost your empire's population growth (they must be packed full of chemicals needed to sustain life, huh?).

-> ''"Neither of us could have predicted, that cosmic storm."''

** In the episode "Year of Hell", a crippled ''Voyager'' hides inside of a nebula so dense that it produces a visible fog ''inside'' the ship's corridors, on account of the ship being too damaged to otherwise keep the stuff out. (This implies that the nebula is ''denser'' than the atmosphere inside the ship.) Captain Janeway even orders the hull breaches sealed to avoid having an "indoor nebula."

* ''Series/BabylonFive'' mostly contented itself with pretty false-color nebulas as distant space backgrounds, but they succumbed fully to the trope in the climactic "Into the Fire" episode with a space battle zipping around the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula, one of Hubble's most famous photos.

* ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'' has numerous nebulas that the player can travel through. One system even has a light blue nebula enveloping the entire system, looking like ''a bright, sunny day'' on Earth. The game also had a [[SpaceCompression number of other issues]].

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''[='=] portrayal of nebulas fits perfectly: you literally only can see objects a few meters away from your viewport.

* A very common goof related to this trope is in artistic illustrations of spaceships, satellites, etc. to put as background a bright (see the [[Analysis/SpaceClouds analysis subpage]]), even ''false color,''[[note]]Taken in wavelenghts different to visible light and colored to be appreciated by human eyes[[/note]] image of a nebula. Subverted somewhat, however, in those pictures by {{UsefulNotes/NASA}} and the like to illustrate a mission that will study the Universe in whatever wavelength(s), where the background is a picture of a nebula seen in the band(s) observed by that said mission.

* In ''Film/{{Solo}}'' Kessel is shown to be at the center of one, so thick that there's only one safe path in or out that is just barely wide enough for an Imperial Star Destroyer. Going off the path risks running into space icebergs, space monsters, black holes, or ''space rain'' ([[Franchise/StarWars the Galaxy Far Far Away]] is 'jello' on the [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness sci fi hardness scale]]).

* In ''Fanfic/DidntExpectThat'', while traveling through a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bok_globule Bok globule]], Eleya makes a ThisIsReality comment regarding the trope, that ''real'' nebulae don't act like fog "like you see in Jachin Province or Hollywood."

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. In "Hostage", the Liberator is attacked by a well-coordinated Federation taskforce, so they hide in a cloud of ionized particles. Just when they're congratulating themselves on evading their pursuers, they get hit by the ''real'' ambush and have to resort to a HyperspeedEscape at LudicrousSpeed, despite the risk that even a tiny particle penetrating their DeflectorShields could obliterate them.

* ''Ishmael'' is MobySchtick InSpace by Australian theatre company Dead Puppet Society. Captain Ahab chases [[AsteroidMiner asteroids]] instead of {{Space Whale}}s, but one turns out to be a case of ThatsNoMoon, so Ahab pursues it into the Oort Cloud which is portrayed as per this trope, including [[HostileWeather lightning storms]].

* Played with in ''Pinball/{{Flash}}''. The backglass and playfield show the Earth as seen from space, surrounded by BubblyClouds and lightning bolts.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{WALLE}}'' Has the ship ''Axiom'' parked next to a nebula which initially hides its presence as the Earth-ship approaches.

** The Serpent Nebula around the Citadel is a regular pea-souper which obscures the massive station for a dramatic [[TheReveal reveal]] as you fly in -- and is therefore noted as being blatantly artificial, and the subject of much speculation as to why someone would go to so much effort to keep it that way.[[spoiler:It's there to cut the Citadel off once the Reapers succeed in shutting down the Mass Relay network.]]

* In ''Film/{{Solo}}'' Kessel is shown to be at the center of one, so thick that there's only one safe path in or out that is just barely wide enough for an Imperial Star Destroyer. Going off the path risks running into space icebergs, space monsters, or black holes.

[[folder:Other]]
* A very common goof related to this trope is in artistic illustrations of spaceships, satellites, etc. to put as background a bright (see the [[Analysis/SpaceClouds analysis subpage]]), even ''false color,''[[note]]Taken in wavelenghts different to visible light and colored to be appreciated by human eyes[[/note]] image of a nebula. Subverted somewhat, however, in those pictures by {{UsefulNotes/NASA}} and the like to illustrate a mission that will study the Universe in whatever wavelength(s), where the background is a picture of a nebula seen in the band(s) observed by that said mission.

[[folder:Pinballs]]
* Played with in ''Pinball/{{Flash}}''. The backglass and playfield show the Earth as seen from space, surrounded by BubblyClouds and lightning bolts.
[[/folder]]

* In ''Star Wars: VideoGame/EmpireAtWar'', nebula fields are large clouds only a few ship-lengths wide, which disable special abilities when one sends a ship into them. Ion storms (which look almost the same, except with Space Lightning) do exactly the same thing, in addition to disabling a ships' DeflectorShields.
* Played with in ''Franchise/MassEffect''; most nebulae are just there as pretty colours on the sector scale of the Galactic Map, and disappear once you zoom in to the star-system level. Some exceptions exist, though:
** The Serpent Nebula around the Citadel is a regular pea-souper which obscures the massive station for a dramatic [[TheReveal reveal]] as you fly in -- and is therefore noted as being blatantly artificial, and the subject of much speculation as to why someone would go to so much effort to keep it that way.[[spoiler:It's there to cut the Citadel off once the Reapers succeed in shutting down the Mass Relay network.]]
** Also notable is the completely opaque Perseus Veil surrounding geth space.
* The various ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'' games have mission areas which take place inside nebulae, and they are often used story-wise as cover against detection. Areas inside nebulae often contain wisp-like strands of stellar gas that function as harvestable resources.
* ''VideoGame/TachyonTheFringe'' has the Twilight Region, which is a giant nebula that obscures most sensors. In fact, you need special sensors and radiation screens just to survive there. The "fog" is even seeping inside the Deep Fringe Array station. It also drives people insane after prolonged exposure, although the radiation may have something to do with it.

* ''VideoGame/RogueSquadron II'' has a stage where you have to fight off fighters in a nebula.
* ''VideoGame/{{Otherspace}}'' uses a gigantic red and gold nebula called the Rigor Strand as a sort of close-by frontier area where rogues and adventurers hang out, due to the fact that the nebula's sensor-thwarting abilities make it nearly impossible to map out.
* In ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion 2'', nebulae greatly reduce the cruising speed of ships passing through them unless the fleet is accompanied by a leader with the "Navigator" trait. They also disable shields that haven't been properly upgraded, when battling around planets in star systems located inside a nebula.
* Yuri from ''VideoGame/InfiniteSpace'' at one point uses a dense gas cloud around a neutron star to hide his ship. Various nebulae can be seen as "Celestial Phenomena" as you explore the galaxies.
* Nebulae show up in the ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'' games. They're all extremely dense (with a few exceptions), sometimes limiting visibility down to 10 kilometers. In the ''Albion Prelude'' expansion pack for ''Terran Conflict'', the nebulae's visibility obstructing effect is removed, making them atmospheric effects that don't affect visibility. The ''Xtended Terran Conflict'' [[GameMod mod]] likewise mostly removes obstructive nebulae, but one sector, Tortuga, has such thick yellow clouds that it's often impossible to see the entirety of a capital ship -- visibility it something like 1.5 kilometers (in a game where [[MileLongShip most capital ships are 2 or more kilometers long]]). Better keep a close eye on your gravidar.
* Matter Splatter Galaxy from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'', which appears to be a cluster of ruins floating about in a thick green space cloud.

* ''VideoGame/WingCommander III'' featured one mission inside a nebula that obscured vision, but otherwise didn't really have any effect on the mission.

* ''VideoGame/BattlefleetGothicArmada'': Gas clouds appear as battlefield terrain, and are both small enough to fit more than comfortably inside orbital battlefields and thick enough for spaceships hiding in them to be completely obscured from sight.
* In ''VideoGame/TenMinuteSpaceStrategy'', gas clouds can appear randomly on the map and dissappear after several turns, though rather than being used as a cover, they can be occupied by your fighters to boost your empire's population growth (they must be packed full of chemicals needed to sustain life, huh?).

* A very common goof related to this trope is in artistic illustrations of spaceships, satellites, etc. to put as background a bright (see the [[Analysis/SpaceClouds analysis subpage]]), even ''false color''[[note]]Taken in wavelenghts different to visible light and colored to be appreciated by human eyes[[/note]], image of a nebula. Subverted somewhat, however, in those pictures by {{UsefulNotes/NASA}} and the like to illustrate a mission that will study the Universe in whatever wavelength(s), where the background is a picture of a nebula seen in the band(s) observed by that said mission.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. In "Hostage", the Liberator is hit by a well-coordinated ambush, so they hide in a cloud of ionized particles. Just when they're congratulating themselves on evading their pursuers, they get hit by the real ambush and have to resort to a HyperspeedEscape at LudicrousSpeed.

Compare AsteroidThicket. Trope name is a meta-example of {{Space X}}. An example of both SpaceIsAir (it's acting that way), and SpaceIsAnOcean (maritime tropes of drifting into dense fog being directly transposed onto spacefaring).

* The Ion Cloud around Mr. Universe's planet in ''Film/{{Serenity}}''. Humorously, in the commentary, Joss Whedon reveals that he's well-aware of how unrealistic it is:

* In ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', Zaphod claims that the inside of a nebula is the only place you'd see a completely blank viewport. Mind you, this is [[SmallNameBigEgo Zaphod]] talking, but the screen actually ''is'' blank until they adjust the view. Such perfect cover is [[MythologyGag very, very improbable:]] any random point selected within any random nebula is liable to have stars, if rather occluded stars, visible in some directions. The notion that the nebula has been providing this perfect cover to the stars Solianis and Rahm for five million years is [[MythologyGag even more improbable.]]

* Played with in ''Pinball/{{Flash}}.'' The backglass and playfield show the Earth as seen from space, surrounded by BubblyClouds and lightning bolts.

* In ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'', when the planet Spherus Magna [[EarthShatteringKaboom shattered]], the smaller planets left behind formed a gigantic Bionicle emblem in space: three planets represented the three large dots, while the "swooshes" around them were formed by, as the [[WordOfGod writer once claimed]], [[SpaceIsCold frozen]] clouds of [[AppliedPhlebotinum Energized Protodermis]] dust, which kept its shape even after 100 000 years.

* In ''VideoGame/EscapeVelocity'', systems in the Serpens Nebula can have varying degrees of sensor-jamming interference that continually obscures the view screen.
** The sequels both have other nebulae, generally with a sensor-jamming interference. It should be noted that interference is the right word -- it is represented as static of varying intensity covering the screen. Actual murk is a separate and somewhat rarer feature (although it ''does'' tend to show up in deep nebulae).

* Nebulae show up in the ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'' games. They're all extremely dense (with a few exceptions), sometimes limiting visibility down to 10 kilometers. In the ''Albion Prelude'' expansion pack for ''Terran Conflict'', the nebulae's visibility obstructing effect is removed, making them atmospheric effects that don't affect visibility. The ''Xtended Terran Conflict'' [[GameMod mod]] likewise mostly removes obstructive nebulae, but one sector, Tortuga, has such thick yellow clouds that it's often impossible to see the entirety of a capital ship - visibility it something like 1.5 kilometers (in a game where [[MileLongShip most capital ships are 2 or more kilometers long]]). Better keep a close eye on your gravidar.

* ''VideoGame/TreasurePlanetBattleAtProcyon'': Nebulae appear as large blue clouds, entering a nebula will cause the ship to lose power, although Ironclads are immune to this as they do not use solar sails for power, thus can travel through nebulae without losing power.

* In ''Star Wars: Empire at War'', nebula fields are large clouds only a few ship-lengths wide, which disable special abilities when one sends a ship into them. Ion storms (which look almost the same, except with Space Lightning) do exactly the same thing, in addition to disabling a ships' DeflectorShields.

* ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' Has the ship ''Axiom'' parked next to a nebula which initially hides its presence as the Earth-ship approaches.