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:''Arrakis is also an alternative name for the star Mu Draconis.'' Arrakis (; (アラビア語:الراقص), ', "the dancer") — informally known as Dune and later called Rakis — is a fictional desert planet featured in the ''Dune'' series of novels by Frank Herbert. Herbert's first novel in the series, 1965's ''Dune'', is popularly considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time,〔Touponce, William F. (1988), ''Frank Herbert'', Boston, Massachusetts: Twayne Publishers imprint, G. K. Hall & Co, pg. 119, ISBN 0-8057-7514-5. "''Locus'' ran a poll of readers on April 15, 1975 in which ''Dune'' 'was voted the all-time-best science-fiction novel ... It has sold over ten million copies in numerous editions.'"〕 and it is sometimes cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history.〔 In ''Dune'', the planet is the home of the Fremen (Zensunni wanderers), and subsequently is the Imperial Capital of the Atreides Empire. Arrakis is the third planet orbiting the star Canopus, and it in turn is orbited by two moons, one of which has the image of the desert kangaroo mouse, Muad'Dib, on it; the other moon possesses the image of a human hand.〔 ==Environment and the spice== A desert planet with no natural precipitation, in ''Dune'' it is established that Arrakis had been "His Imperial Majesty's Desert Botanical Testing Station" before the discovery of melange, for which it is the only natural source in the universe.〔 Melange (or, "the spice") is the most essential and valuable commodity in the universe, as it extends life and makes safe interstellar travel possible (among other uses).〔 The planet has no surface water bodies,〔 but open canals called qanats are used "for carrying irrigation water under controlled conditions" through the desert. The Fremen collect water in underground reservoirs to fulfill their dream of someday terraforming the planet, and pay the Spacing Guild exorbitant fees in melange to keep the skies over Arrakis free of any satellites which might observe their efforts.〔 As indicated by its large salt flats, Arrakis once had lakes and oceans; Lady Jessica also notes in ''Dune'' that wells drilled in the sinks and basins initially produce a "trickle" of water which soon stops, as if "something plugs it."〔 Paul Atreides recalls that the few plants and animals on the planet include "saguaro, burro bush, date palm, sand verbena, evening primrose, barrel cactus, incense bush, smoke tree, creosote bush ... kit fox, desert hawk, kangaroo mouse ... many to be found now nowhere else in the universe except here on Arrakis."〔 The most notable life forms on the planet are the giant sandworms and their immature forms of sandtrout and sandplankton.〔 Sandtrout encyst any water deposits;〔 predator fish are placed in the qanats and other water storage areas to protect them from the sandtrout. It is suggested the sandworms are an introduced species that caused the desertification of Arrakis; In ''Children of Dune'' (1976), Leto II Atreides explains to his twin sister Ghanima: The sandtrout ... was introduced here from some other place. This was a wet planet then. They proliferated beyond the capability of existing ecosystems to deal with them. Sandtrout encysted the available free water, made this a desert planet ... and they did it to survive. In a planet sufficiently dry, they could move to their sandworm phase.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Arrakis」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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