Simulations of vaporization of Earth-like planets tell planet-hunters what to look for in atmospheres of super-Earths
Thursday, August 2, 2012 - 14:31
in Astronomy & Space
(Phys.org) -- In science fiction novels, evil overlords and hostile aliens often threaten to vaporize the Earth. At the beginning of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the officiously bureaucratic aliens called Vogons, authors of the third-worst poetry in the universe, actually follow through on the threat, destroying the Earth to make way for a hyperspatial express route.