About Magrathea
Magrathea is an ancient planet
Magrathea
Magrathea is an ancient planet located in orbit around the twin suns Soulianis and Rahm in the heart of the Horsehead nebula. Magrathea is a planet whose economy was based on the manufacturing of other planets for the wealthiest people in the universe. It was the people of Magrathea (known as "Magratheans") who created the Earth.
Magrathea is considered the home of the industry of "Custom-made luxury planet building." It was a market aimed at the richest of the rich, during the days of the former Galactic Empire. The Magratheans would design and create entire planets for wealthy clients. They were so successful that Magrathea became the richest planet of all time. However, this resulted in the rest of the galaxy being plunged into abject poverty and the economy collapsing. The planet then faded from memory with most people believing it to be just a myth.
Amongst the clients who asked for planets to be created were a race of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings who asked the Magratheans to create the Earth which, in addition to being a planet, was a super-computer designed to calculate the ultimate question to the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything. Amongst the people who worked on it was Slartibartfast, a coastal designer who won an award for his work on Norway.
The surface of the planet appears to be dead, with the Magratheans kept in cryogenic sleep within the planet, not to be awakened until the economy was again strong enough to afford luxury planets. The surface is described as "Blighted". The book says that, "Bits of it were dullish grey, bits of it dullish brown, the rest of it rather less interesting to look at. It was like a dried-out marsh, now barren of all vegetation and covered with a layer of dust about an inch thick. It was very cold." They were later awakened for the reconstruction of the Earth (the Earth, Mk. II).
“For the~ Some guy on Magrathea
Magrathea is an inhabited planet slightly down the galactic road from Earth. Its main business is the creation of planets; this made Magrathea the richest planet of all time. However, due to this, all of the galaxy's inhabitants were thrown into abject poverty. The builders living on Magrathea decided to take a brief break and wait for the rest of the galaxy to return to prosperity. Magrathea is famous for having created the Earth, which has since been destroyed by the Vogons. You will likely encounter people contradicting this fact. Don't mind them, they're all just insane. Originally classified as a "Super Planet", under the new IAU (Intergalactical Ass-tronomical U) guidelines, Magrathea has been downgraded to a "regular old planet, nothing special".
Appearance and Composition
Magrathea is composed of 45% dirt and 8% methane. The remaining percentage is a collection of dead skin cells from the inhabitants that have remained in a suspended sleep state for millions of years and hence have not bothered to do any sweeping or dusting.
Scientists are fascinated by Magrathea due to the fact that the planet does not have a core. Instead the centre of the planet is a nebulous portal into a different dimension. This dimension serves as the workroom for planet manufacture (see Business).
The only known photograph of Magrathea taken from space is one taken by Zaphod Beeblebrox. In 1998 the Hubble Space Telescope attempted to take photographs of Magrathea, but when the prints came back it was discovered that it was just some bubblegum stuck to the lens by a careless astronaut.
Location and Orbit
The planet of Magrathea is located in the Horsehead Nebula, where it orbits the twin suns of Soulanis and Rahm. Its exact location is not known, because as soon as its location is written down, it changes. The only way to find the planet is to input the name in your Improbability Drive and hope for the best. Magrathea is approximately 1,500 light years from Earth, though of course it won't be now since it has been written down.
Business
Magrathea's economy relies solely on its planet-creating business. As you might imagine, this does not make for a very balanced planetary economy and is probably why nobody cares about Magrathea anymore. Though no one has bought a planet from them in a very long time, the Magratheans keep a careful catalog of planets, some of which are described in a certain book.
The catalog includes:
- Planets made of gold
- Planets made of platinum
- Planets made of fish
- Planets made of rubber "with lots of earthquakes"
- Planets on which naked people drop out of the sky on parachutes
- Planets covered in springtime meadows
- Planets covered in scenes straight out of horror movies
- Planets where two lefts do make a right
Since making a planet is astronomically expensive, and no one has been rich enough to buy one since the Great Galactic Market Crash, the amount of money you can expect to pay for one is more than you or anyone else will ever make in your pathetic little human life. In other words, give up now.
Inhabitants
- Slartibartfast, a man who has an obsession with fjords and icebergs
- The cleaning staff... well, they are in a cryogenic sleep at the moment.
- The Builders and others... also in cryogenic sleep.
- 2 White mice (which were really just the form of their true selves projected into our dimension)
That is about...Thank you!
