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In Alien 3, where is Fiorina "Fury" 161? I'm looking for an in-universe source (excluding Prometheus, including everything else) indicating some connection to the real-life night sky.

In various wikis they mention "about 19.5 light years", which would be a nice clue - any idea where that is sourced from? Other clues would be the binary sun, and the assumption that it would be somewhere near a line drawn between Zeta Reticuli and Earth. Outer Veil, unless defined, doesn't help much with finding a real-life star. Looking for sources before Prometheus, so pre-2012.

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    Veil Nebula is a very large, rather faint nebula that covers the entire constellation of Orion and then a bit. The Orion nebula is a denser region of the Veil. Some sources call it "Vela" -- the Latin name.
    – Zeiss Ikon
    Commented Mar 30, 2020 at 11:17
  • @Zeiss Ikon: With the Orion Nebula being 1344 light years away, and the Veil Nebula being 2400 light years away, neither would seem to be related to the relatively near-space Alien franchise, sharing the name Veil notwithstanding.
    – MikeC
    Commented Mar 30, 2020 at 11:30
  • Just for the record here is a list of the closest stars to earth excluding alpha, beta and proxima centaur which are only about 4.5ish light years from us... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_20–25_light-years
    – skyjack
    Commented Mar 30, 2020 at 11:44
  • also... whatever it is in alien is specified as being in zeta reticule... alienanthology.fandom.com/wiki/Acheron_(LV-426)
    – skyjack
    Commented Mar 30, 2020 at 11:47
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    @IanMcAuley your answer was flagged as spam by our community, but as I don't think you're promoting something you yourself benefit from, I've moved your answer to a comment. Also I did this because your post did not actually answer the question. When you have more reputation you'll be able to post comments by yourself! If you haven't already, please read the tour and see how the site works. Thanks again
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According to the (1992) Alien3 novelisation Fiorina is in the Neroid Sector, situated within the Outer Veil.

Fiorina wasn’t an impressive world, and in appearance even less inviting, but it was the only one in the Neroid Sector with an active beacon. The EEV’s data banks locked in on the steady signal. Twice the damaged navigation system lost the beam, but continued on the prescribed course anyway. Twice the signal was recovered. Information on Fiorina was scarce and dated, as befitted its isolation and peculiar status.

?Fiorina ‘Fury’ 361,?the readout stated. ?Outer veil mineral ore refinery. Maximum security work-correctional facility.?The words meant nothing to the ship’s computer. They would have meant much to its passengers, but they were not in position or condition to read anything. ?Additional information requested??the computer flashed plaintively.

Neither of those places exist in the real world, but we can assume that it's somewhere between the supposed location of Zeta2 Reticuli (the in-universe location of LV-426) and Earth.

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  • Yes, looking for how to connect Fiorina and the Neroid sector with the real world. Are any real world stars mentioned as also being part of the Neroid sector? Any mention of sector size, distance from earth, located in which constellation, or anything like that?
    – MikeC
    Commented Mar 30, 2020 at 12:32
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    @MikeC - The "Neroid" sector exists solely as part of the Aliens fictional universe. It doesn't have a real-world counterpart. LV-426 is allegedly orbiting Zeta2 Reticuli, but that star is hundreds (thousands?) of light years from where it should be in reality. Trying to pin these to real-world places is pointless. Per Bellisarrio's Maxim "Don't examine this too closely"
    – Valorum
    Commented Mar 30, 2020 at 12:38
  • @Valorum I always wondered why Zeta Reticuli. Is it because of the Barney & Betty Hill "starmap" (which apparently has a better fit with the solar system bodies at that time of this particular Close Encounter of the 3rd (and 4th) kind, I haven't closely looked into that)
    – David Tonhofer
    Commented Mar 30, 2020 at 17:28
  • @DavidTonhofer - I can't find much prior usage in scifi before Alien. They may have simply chosen it for its rarity value
    – Valorum
    Commented Mar 30, 2020 at 17:32
  • @David Tonhofer - I had heard that the old stories of abductions and crop circles were supposedly by Greys, supposedly from Zeta Reticulli. Some famous psychic supposedly drew a map pointing there. The writers of Alien then chose it based on that connection.
    – MikeC
    Commented Mar 31, 2020 at 5:09

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