Line #74 Main/SpaceClouds


1	[[quoteright:320:[[Series/StarTrekVoyager https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/NebulaStorm_1297.jpg]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:320:Today's [[SpaceX space forecast]]: Cloudy with a chance of {{Negative Space Wedgie}}s.]]
3
4	-> ''"Neither of us could have predicted that cosmic storm."''
5	-->-- '''Scrooge [=McDuck=]''', ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'', "[[Recap/DuckTales2017S1E22TheLastCrashOfTheSunchaser The Last Crash of the Sunchaser!]]"
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7	Far out in space, our hero's CoolStarship is on the run from the BigBad and hides out in a nebula/gas field/whatever and is obscured from their pursuer's sensors. It's a misty realm where you may not even be able to see your own hand in front of your face. This trope is about what seems to be a common theme in nearly all ScienceFiction shows: a (nearly) human-scale cloud that is inexplicably stable in space. To add to the drama, the cloud may also contain dangerous weather, with lightning bolts and the like.
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9	In reality, nebulae and other "clouds" of interstellar matter are extremely sparse -- they have only about one atom of matter per cubic centimeter of space. That's a ''trillion trillion'' times less dense than the matter you could expect to find on Earth or in a star. The only reason these nebulae appear cloudlike to us is their immense size [[ForcedPerspective and distance]]. A nebula can be many light years across, regardless of how compact it may look from Earth.
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11	This trope has grown in popularity in direct proportion to the number and quality of images returned by the Hubble Space Telescope (and other observatories). It's quickly becoming a case of RealityIsUnrealistic. See [[Analysis/SpaceClouds Analysis]] for a comparison with real-life nebulae.
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13	Compare AsteroidThicket. Trope name is a meta-example of SpaceX. An example of both SpaceIsAir (it's acting that way), and SpaceIsAnOcean (maritime tropes of drifting into dense fog being directly transposed onto spacefaring).
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15	----
16	!!Examples:
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18	[[foldercontrol]]
19
20	[[folder:Fan Works]]
21	* 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".
22	[[/folder]]
23
24	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
25	* ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' Has the ship ''Axiom'' parked next to a nebula which initially hides its presence as the Earth-ship approaches.
26	[[/folder]]
27
28	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
29	%%* ''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: %%Example needs more than just a name.
30	%%-->'''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.
31	* The Mutara Nebula in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' 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.
32	* The 2011 film ''Film/{{Thor}}'' features a dazzling journey through the cosmos via the rainbow bridge through a nebula which looks suspiciously like the Pillars of Creation, complete with the false coloration featured in the famous Hubble photo.
33	* ''Film/GalaxyQuest'' has the ''Protector'' escape an enemy attack by flying into what looks like a nebula. It's actually a cloud of SpaceMines.
34	%%* 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). %%Without context, "one" could mean anything.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Literature]]
38	* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'':
39	** In the first book, 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]].
40	** In ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything'', the Krikkit people have never seen stars and are entirely unaware of the night sky specifically because their planet lives inside a cloud [[spoiler:of Hactar's debris. In this case, Trillian notes the incredible improbability of the entire situation and deduces that an outside intelligence is behind the whole thing.]]
41	* Mostly justified with the "Provcon-Fist", a proper dark nebula in the ''Literature/PerryRhodan'' universe that the ex-Terran resistance movement of the 36th century uses to hide from the forces occupying the galaxy after Earth has already vacated its solar system for parts unknown to those left behind. It's a reasonably proper mostly-globular nebula actually large enough to hold several stars and their associated planets of its own, and what makes it basically impossible to navigate aren't so much its properties in normal spacetime as the fact that it presents an always ongoing "storm front" in ''hyperspace'', through which any ships must necessarily travel and where with about two plot-relevant exceptions only "native" guides with the right PsychicPowers can find their way safely.
42	* Justified in the Creator/MurrayLeinster story ''Literature/FirstContact''. The expedition to the Crab Nebula has to drop out of faster-than-light travel when they get the nebula itself. Leinster was aware that nebulae are extremely tenuous, but "A ship travelling at multiples of the speed of light does not want to run into even a merely hard vacuum; it needs true emptiness such as exists between the stars."
43	[[/folder]]
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45	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
46	* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
47	** "The Best of Both Worlds" has the ''Enterprise'' take refuge in a dense nebula to hide from the Borg. The Borg can't find them, so they resort to launching charges into the nebula to drive ''Enterprise'' out.
48	** In "Chain of Command", the Cardassians hide their ships in a corrosive nebula in preparation for a surprise attack. ''Enterprise'' gets wind of this and attaches mines to their hulls, which thanks to the corrosion will not withstand the blast. They're quick to acquiesce once it's made clear their ships can be destroyed with the press of a button.
49	* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
50	** The early episode "The Cloud" has ''Voyager'' attempting to harvest replicator resources from a space cloud (Janeway: "There's [[MustHaveCaffeine coffee]] in that nebula!"), which turns out to be somehow ''alive''.
51	** In the episode "Year of Hell", the 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."
52	** In the opening credits, Voyager passes though a cloud just a few kilometers thick, yet dense enough to see.
53	* In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Rocks and Shoals", Sisko's ship (which is being chased and has no warp drive) is not only able to find a dense and conveniently close nebula to hide in, but finds a ''ConvenientlyClosePlanet'' inside the nebula.
54	* ''Series/BabylonFive'' mostly contented itself with pretty false-color nebulae as distant space backgrounds, but in the climactic "Into the Fire" episode there was a space battle zipping around the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula, one of Hubble's most famous photos.
55	* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' presents 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.
56	* ''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.
57	[[/folder]]
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59	[[folder:Pinball]]
60	* The ''Pinball/{{Flash}}'' backglass and playfield show the Earth as seen from space, surrounded by clouds and lightning bolts.
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63	[[folder:Podcasts]]
64	* ''Podcast/FriendsAtTheTable'': ''Twilight Mirage'' takes place inside the eponymous artificial nebula, which isn't quite as foggy as other examples but is still clearly visible. It gets its name from the way it tints all light inside it with the colors of a perpetual sunrise/sunset.
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66
67	[[folder:Theatre]]
68	* ''Ishmael'' is MobySchtick InSpace by Australian theatre company Dead Puppet Society. Captain Ahab chases {{asteroid\|Miner}}s instead of {{Space Whale}}s, but one turns out to be a case of ThatsNoMoon, so Ahab pursues it into the Oort Cloud which includes [[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]].
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71	[[folder:Toys]]
72	* 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.
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75	[[folder:Video Games]]
76	* ''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.
77	* 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).
78	* ''VideoGame/FreeSpace'' has nebulae that look like really thick technicolor soup when you fly through them, obscuring things from your radar except at close range, and limiting sight range to under a kilometer. They also have frequent lightning storms which, when intense enough, wreak EMP-related havoc with your ship's HUD.
79	* ''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.
80	** Each region of Sirius, except for Liberty, is located near a specific type of nebula. Bretonia has the Barrier, a huge bluish-white cloud of ice crystals. Kusari has the Crow Nebula, the aforementioned blue nebula composed of ionized hydrogen, oxygen and helium. Rheinland has the Walker Nebula, which is made up of yellow clouds with mineral rich asteroid fields. The Edge World systems have the Edge Nebula, a mysterious green cloud full of alien organisms, artifacts and [[spoiler:Nomads.]] And they're all [[SceneryPorn drop dead gorgeous.]]
81	* In ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'', certain jump points are covered by purple nebula clouds ''a la'' ''[[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Wrath of Khan]]''. Sensors are disabled there, and certain ones have plasma storms that halve reactor output for those within. Slugs make their home in nebula sectors.
82	* ''VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations III'' introduces space weather as obstacles on the map. Nebulae, dust clouds, gas clouds, and "radiation storms" all litter the map. They tend to limit sensor and movement range to varying extents, and radiation storms actually damage any ships that fly through them.
83	* 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.
84	* 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.
85	* In the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series, 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:
86	** 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.]]
87	** Also notable is the completely opaque Perseus Veil surrounding geth space.
88	* 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.
89	* ''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.
90	* ''Franchise/StarWars'' games:
91	** In ''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.
92	** ''VideoGame/RogueSquadron II'' has a stage where you have to fight off fighters in a nebula.
93	* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' has nebulae as a type of star system "terrain," like pulsars or black holes, and the galactic map has several named nebulae that encompass several systems. The upside is that you can harvest resources from a nebula with the proper space station module, the downside is that outside sensors cannot penetrate the nebular cloud, so the only way to see what's in one is by sending in one or more ships. This makes a nebula a natural place to spring an ambush on a fleet moving along the galaxy's HyperspaceLanes.
94	* Matter Splatter Galaxy from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' appears to be a cluster of ruins floating about in a thick green space cloud.
95	* ''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.
96	* In ''VideoGame/TenMinuteSpaceStrategy'', gas clouds can appear randomly on the map for a few turns before disappearing. They can be occupied by your fighters to boost your empire's population growth.
97	* ''VideoGame/TreasurePlanetBattleAtProcyon'': Nebulae appear as large blue clouds, and entering one will cause the ship to lose power. Ironclads are immune to this, as they do not use solar sails for power, and can thus travel through nebulae without losing power.
98	* In ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'', space fog is a common sight across the [[ColonizedSolarSystem Origin System]], likely emanating from the Void, a dimension filled with bright cyan clouds of eldritch energy wherever you look.
99	* ''VideoGame/WingCommander III'' featured one mission inside a nebula that obscured vision, but otherwise didn't really have any effect on the mission.
100	* 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.
101	[[/folder]]
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103	[[folder:Web Comics]]
104	* In ''Webcomic/TheLydianOption'', the Eye is an asteroid prison visible as an eye in the middle of a nebula shaped like a creature.
105	[[/folder]]
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107	[[folder:Western Animation]]
108	* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'': "[[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS4E10OldFriendsNewPlanets Old Friends, New Planets]]" features an ion storm in the climax, as [[spoiler:Mariner is forced to enter it when Nova Fleet, an independent fleet Nick Locarno has formed by convincing ambitious lower deckers to mutiny, corners her outside, despite the danger it represents; at least if she's ripped apart, Locarno won't get the Genesis Device she stole back. Only Locarno is determined (read: ''crazy'') enough to follow her inside. The ion storm, and everything within, is transformed into a new planet when the Genesis Device goes off.]]
109	* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''[='=] portrayal of nebulae fits perfectly: you literally only can see objects a few meters away from your viewport.
110	* ''WesternAnimation/MegasXLR'' has an episode where a bunch of totally-not-the-Franchise/{{Transformers}} are chasing after Coop into a Space Cloud. He proceeds to turn it into a MookHorrorshow.
111	[[/folder]]
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113	[[folder:Other]]
114	* 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 wavelengths 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.
115	[[/folder]]

Context Main / SpaceClouds