List of fictional doomsday devices
Doomsday devices, when used in fiction, are capable of destroying anything from a civilization to an entire universe, and may be used for the purpose of mutually assured destruction, or as weapons in their own right. Examples of such devices include the Death Star from the "Star Wars" film franchise, the "" seen in the original "Star Trek" television series, or the atomic-powered stone burners from Frank Herbert's "Dune" franchise. Overview. Planet killers function in a variety of ways depending on the series. Weapons such as the Death Star and the titular ship in  Lexx use a directed energy weapon capable of obliterating a planet in moments. In the game "Spore", the Planet Buster is an antimatter bomb that is inserted in the center of the planet, causing the planet's core to split into countless fragments. Other weapons, such as the Shadow Planet Killer in "Babylon 5" and Covenant warships in the "Halo" series, render a planet uninhabitable. The Shadow Planet Killer does so by firing missiles which burrow into the planet's core and detonate, causing planet-wide volcanic activity which renders the planet lifeless. Covenant warships use plasma weapons to superheat  the surface of the planet; the crust is turned into a glass-like substance rendering it uninhabitable. In "Star Blazers", missiles that can destroy a planet (and even a star) with a single hit exist. Some devices can destroy entire star systems. Nova bombs in "Andromeda", the Sun Crusher and Centerpoint Station in the "Star Wars" novels, and Dr. Tolian Soran's trilithium torpedo in "Star Trek Generations", are all capable of causing a supernova, obliterating every planet in the Solar System. Planet killers in fiction. Film and television. Section::::"Star Trek". General Order 24 (see below) indicates that "all" Federation  starships of cruiser size or above were capable of being planet killers by sustained use of conventional weapons to thoroughly bombard a planet. Literature. The E.C.Tubb story 'Little Girl Lost' (also, a filmed adaptation was done for USA TV Series NIGHT GALLERY) presents a scenario where a researcher, working on atomic weapons (in the TV adaptation, he is working for the US, in the original, for the British government) suffers a nervous breakdown when his daughter is killed in a car accident. In order to keep him working at his project, a psychologist is brought in to keep him in  a delusional state, thinking that she is still alive ... it seems that he is completely fooled by this ruse until the end, where it is discovered that his weapon can (and does) destroy the planet, or at least that is implied ... ▪ Stephan Ames Berry Kronarian book series has two versions of planet busters one produced by the old imperium burrows into a planets cores and explodes destroying the planet from the inside out. The other was produced by the Trel called a worm maker creates a wormhole to consume a planet or in some cases whole solar systems. this  one was copied by the antagonist AI's and was used against them destroying their fleet. Games. Section::::"Halo" series. The titular Halo installations themselves only kill sentient life, leaving planets and their biospheres-as well as any creature without sufficient biomass to support The Flood-otherwise intact. However, Forerunner and ancient Human fleets are known to possess less selective weapons capable of inducing stellar collapses at will. Anime and manga. Section::::"Dragon Ball". Many characters in the series can destroy planets. Section::::"Gall Force". In the first 3 Gall Force movies both sides the Solnoid and Paranoid Axis forces have had both  their home worlds destroyed in a war of mutual assured destruction. They plan on using the last of their planet destroyers and include the new system destroyers in their final battle plans. Section::::"Gurren Lagann". The main antagonist, the Anti-Spiral, is shown to have destroyed many planets, stars, and galaxies. In the second film adaptation, an entire universe is destroyed in the Anti-Spiral's clash with the similarly powerful Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. In the final battle with Kain, who is apparently powerful enough to destroy a planet on his own. Washu decides to have Kiyone make use  of a "Dimensional Cannon". In spite of Kiyone's protests that you shouldn't even use it on a city because it is made for taking out small galaxies. Section::::"Space Battleship Yamato" (Star Blazers). Throughout the series and movies, including Rebirth and the recent live action film, the Yamato (Argo) and similar battleships in the Earth Defense Force are armed with a Wave Motion Gun. This weapon of last resort is capable of obliterating entire fleets in one shot, as well as most moon and planetary sized objects. The downside of using this weapon is that it leaves the ship  defenseless before and after firing due to the massive amount of energy needed to fire it (except in Rebirth, where the ship could fire six shots without recharging.) Also included would be the Desler (Desslok) cannon, built on the same principle (Tachyon Compression), and the main cannon in Zordar's dreadnaught, which was deployed at the end of season 2. In the remake "" the White Comet of the Gatlantis Empire is a planet killing weapon, that captures and destroy a planet's biosphere. Section::::"Eureka seveN". At the end of the series, it is established that the Coralians have the ability  to engulf a planet and form their own version of a planetary crust, although they did not exercise it with the purpose of making a planet uninhabitable. Section::::"The End of Evangelion". At the end of the movie, the Human Instrumentality Project is carried out and the Human race is combined into one shared consciousness. Secondary literature. In his discussion of the tradition of apocalyptic cinema Mitchell exemplifies what the film "Doomsday Machine" or "Escape from Planet Earth" characterizes as a "planet-buster" as belonging to the class of "Doomsday device". Secondary literature can also use terms like "planet-cracker" or  planet-busting superweapon. Science journalism. In the field of science journalism, a 1962 article examined various means "to put an end to the world", concentrating on "Doomsday Bombs". As astronomer Phil Plait has pointed out, the amount of energy necessary to shatter an Earth-sized planet is extremely large: "about 2 x 10 Joules... about as much energy as the sun puts out in a week."