Trisolaris
Names: Trisolaristhe world of Three BodyTrisolaran stellar systemTrisolaran systemAlpha Centauriour planetthe distant worldThree Body worldTrisolaran star system
First appears in Book 1: The Three-Body Problem, chapter 18 (18)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: The Three-Body Problem
- Ch 19Astronomers found the system once had twelve planets; the other eleven were consumed by the suns, whose gaseous layers 'breathe' over eons.
- Ch 19Scholars predict the suns' gaseous layers will next expand in one thousand years, endangering the planet.
- Ch 23Trisolaris is a civilization that has been reborn again and again and plans to migrate to the stars.
- Ch 29The Redemptionists treat Alpha Centauri as a Mount Olympus in space, the dwelling place of their gods.
- Ch 32Trisolaris is threatened by its three suns; one may expand and swallow the planet at any time.
- Ch 33The third unfolding succeeded; the proton plane wrapped the planet in a reflective shell, blocking sunlight and causing extreme cold, so most people were dehydrated and stored.
- Ch 33Trisolaris sent humanity outside the ETO its first message three seconds after General Chang spoke: 'You're bugs!'
- Ch 33Trisolaris never sent another message for the rest of the lives of the meeting attendees.
Book 2: The Dark Forest
- Ch 2The Three Body world is used as a hidden multilevel-maze meeting place and buffer area for ETO members, safer than the real world.
- Ch 8Exposing Trisolaris's location would expose the Solar System's, since humanity has already revealed their distance and heading. Luo Ji calls this a death strategy.
- Ch 9Trisolaris agreed to stop the droplet's transmissions toward the sun and to turn the nine approaching droplets away.
Book 3: Death's End
- Ch 20Contrary to human predictions, it systematically transmitted a huge body of complete scientific systems to Earth, including mathematics, physics, cosmology and Trisolaran molecular biology.
- Ch 20It revealed almost nothing about its own world, saying its crude native culture was not ready to be shown to humans.
- Ch 32Anticipated humanity's shift away from dark forest deterrence five years earlier and correctly predicted the kind of second Swordholder who would be elected.
- Ch 32Risked the fleet's discovery, which could have triggered the deterrence broadcast had deterrence not been destroyed within five years.
- Ch 33The exact point when Trisolaran technological progress shifted from constant to explosive is unknown; scholars disagree whether it began in the Crisis Era or the Deterrence Era.
- Ch 33If the speculation holds, Trisolaris far surpassed Earth in every domain of knowledge.
- Ch 41Trisolaris is annihilated; its star brightens to a blinding white, then fades to red and goes out, seen from Earth as a blue star.
- Ch 42Trisolaris was destroyed three years and ten months after the Broadcast Era began, sooner than anyone expected after the gravitational wave broadcast.
- Ch 42The Trisolaran system was attacked the same way as 187J3X1: a near-lightspeed object struck one of its three stars, and the resulting explosion annihilated the planet.
- Ch 43Trisolaris was destroyed when a photoid struck its sun, creating a fire plume that liquefied the planet and then triggered the star's explosion.
- Ch 43Fewer than one-thousandth of the Trisolaran population escaped, counting fleets far from home.
- Ch 53Its star's destruction provided the data used to model what a strike on the Sun would do.
- Ch 59The most valuable photoid data was obtained just before the Trisolaran system was annihilated by a photoid.
- Ch 60Only one of its three stars was destroyed; the two survivors and the nebula form a radiation furnace, making the system uninhabitable.
Connections
- includesGiant moonSmaller piece torn from the planet in the great rip
- related toTrisolaran Interstellar Fleetlaunched from Trisolaris to find a new world
- has memberTrisolaran Interstellar Fleet
- led byThe princeps
- related toWorld Academy of Sciencesreceives and studies scientific knowledge transmitted from Trisolaris
- has memberSecond Trisolaran Fleetlaunched from Trisolaris
- related tosophonsophons carried human culture to Trisolaris
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 19Great rip destroys Civilization 191
Three frozen flying stars became suns passing within the Roche limit, tearing Trisolaris into two pieces and creating the giant moon.
- Book 1 · Ch 20Launch of the Trisolaran Expedition
Wang finds hundreds of millions of Trisolarans watching the sky. The thousand-ship fleet lights up, accelerates and vanishes in the west, bound for the nearest star about four light-years away.
- Book 1 · Ch 23Ye receives a message from Trisolaris
On a night shift, Ye notices an intelligent signal rated AAAAA, deciphers a warning not to answer, and spends four hours learning about Trisolaris and its migration plan.
- Book 1 · Ch 32The princeps judges the listener
The princeps spares the listener to let him witness Earth's fall, orders six thousand monitoring officials burned, and commits to launching the fleet.
- Book 1 · Ch 33Emergency meeting at the Pendulum Monument
The princeps stops the pendulum, announces Earth's response, and explains the fleet faces death against accelerating human technology. He unveils plans to stifle Earth's science, including Project Sophon.
- Book 1 · Ch 33First unfolding fails
The first attempt to unfold a proton yields a harmless one-dimensional string whose threads drift through Trisolaris's atmosphere.
- Book 1 · Ch 33Second unfolding and the mirror attack
The second attempt produces a three-dimensional proton containing intelligence. It forms a giant parabolic mirror that burns the capital until the space defense corps destroys it.
- Book 1 · Ch 33Third proton unfolding succeeds
The proton is unfolded into a mirror plane in the sky, then wrapped around Trisolaris, plunging the planet into darkness and cold while circuits are etched onto it.
- Book 1 · Ch 33Sophon One tested
After circuits are etched, Sophon One boots and is shifted through dimensions up to six, demonstrating it can see inside people and enter enclosed spaces.
- Book 1 · Ch 33Trisolaran explanation of the Miracle Plan
A Trisolaran explains how sophons can display miracles to terrify and mislead human scientists and why two sophons are kept home for real-time monitoring via entanglement.
- Book 1 · Ch 33Trisolaris tells humanity "You're bugs!"
At the Battle Command Center, after General Chang warns of sophon surveillance, everyone sees a two-second message in their eyes reading 'You're bugs!' Trisolaris then cuts off the Adventists.
- Book 2 · Ch 2ETO meeting in Three Body world
King Wen and Newton meet in the game and confirm both received sophon messages; King Wen assures him of the org's safety.
- Book 2 · Ch 5Three Body figures debate response
Virtual Three Body figures discuss Zhang Beihai's act, agree not to intervene, judge him dangerous but unprovable, and are relieved he will go to the future.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Final showdown with Trisolaris
Luo Ji, pistol to his heart, announces the bomb broadcast deterrent. Sophons appear, and Trisolaris agrees to halt the probe transmissions and redirect the nine droplets, but not turn the fleet.
- Book 3 · Ch 3Yang Dong learns her mother's secret
Yang Dong secretly recovers Ye Wenjie's deleted encrypted messages and learns about Trisolaris and her mother's hidden role, but keeps silent.
- Book 3 · Ch 20Trisolaris transmits knowledge to Earth
Trisolaris sends complete systems of basic science to Earth, overwhelming scientists. Humans suspect Earth is being used as a knowledge battery, though sophon interference ends and the physics is verified.
- Book 3 · Ch 20Wave of cultural reflection
After the tenth year of the Deterrence Era, Trisolaris sends high-quality art imitating human culture, which becomes popular on Earth and displaces native human culture, while Trisolaris itself stays mysterious.
- Book 3 · Ch 32Second Trisolaran Fleet discovered
After deterrence ends, the observation station finds 415 trails showing a second Trisolaran fleet. Further trails reveal it travelled at lightspeed and is now decelerating, arriving in about a year rather than centuries.
- Book 3 · Ch 33Trisolaran technology explosion
Trisolaran technology shifted to explosive progress, likely due to human cultural influence via sophons that loosened totalitarianism, and possibly due to knowledge from another civilization found by exploratory sophons.
- Book 3 · Ch 41Destruction of Trisolaris seen from Earth
Fraisse wakes Cheng Xin at night to look at the sky. A star outside the Solar System flares brighter than the full moon, turns white, fades to red and goes out, confirming dark forest theory.
- Book 3 · Ch 42Destruction of Trisolaris
A photoid launched from a nearby spacecraft almost instantly after the broadcast struck one of Trisolaris's three stars, and the explosion annihilated the planet.
- Book 3 · Ch 43Destruction of Trisolaris
A photoid struck a Trisolaran sun, a fire plume scoured the planet, and the star collapsed and exploded; humanity saw the light three days before.