Magrathea

“Magrathea itself soon became the richest planet of all time”

—The Guide's entry on Magrathea (page 634784, section 5a)

Magrathea
Location	Heart of the Horsehead Nebula
Status	Closed, was briefly opened
Native species	Magratheans
Residents	Slartibartfast
Visitors	Arthur Dent Ford Prefect Marvin Trillian Zaphod Beeblebrox
First appearance	Fit the Fifth

Magrathea is an ancient planet located in orbit around the twin suns Soulianis and Rahm in the heart of the Horsehead Nebula.

It was the home of a new form of specialist industry: custom-made, luxury planet building. Hyperspatial engineers sucked matter through white holes in space to form dream planets - gold planets, square planets, glass planets, platinum planets, soft rubber planets with lots of earthquakes, planets covered with fish - all lovingly made to meet the exacting standards that the Galaxy's richest men naturally came to expect.

It was the Magratheans who constructed the planet-sized computer, Earth (for a race of hyperintelligent pan-dimensional beings, the mice and designed by Deep Thought), to determine the ultimate question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, which is required to understand the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Unfortunately, the venture was so successful that Magrathea soon became the richest planet of all time and the rest of the Galaxy was reduced to abject poverty. The Magratheans went into hibernation, awaiting an economic recovery that could afford their services once more. Mostly everyone except Slartibartfast is seen to be in hibernation.

Magrathea itself disappeared and its memory soon passed into the obscurity of legend.

In these enlightened days, of course, no one believes a word of it.

The Heart of Gold and its occupants arrive at Magrathea.

The planet Nano is built by the Magratheans.

Appearances

Magrathea appeared in:

• Episode 3 of the television series.
• Fit the fifth of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series.
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (book)

Magrathea was mentioned in:

• The Eoin Colfer co-produced novel And Another Thing...
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (video game)

Behind the scenes

• Magrathea is named after Rory McGrath. Other references to McGrath can be found in the books, including the Rory Award (an award for swearing) in "Life, the Universe and Everything" (book), as well as the auto-Rory.
• When the television version of the series was made, a clay pit in St Austell, Cornwall was used to film the exterior shots of Magrathea. Creator of the series Douglas Adams however, claimed that he wanted to film in Iceland or Morocco, but these locations were too expensive.
• In the computer game The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the game is completed once the player sets foot on Magrathea.