NASA horror trailer warns of zombie exoplanets
Torrential rains of glass, beams of radiation and certain death await you on distant worlds.
I'm getting the distinct feeling NASA loves Halloween.
Already this week, the space agency was involved with a ghostly Hubble image release. Now it's trying to scare our pants off with a 1950's-style B-movie horror trailer for some truly frightening exoplanets.
The trailer uses old black-and-white footage and cheesy special effects to evoke an era when films like Attack of the Crab Monsters and The Brain Eaters graced theaters.
The hideous monstrosities featured in the trailer are real planets. HD 189733 b has an atmosphere in which insane winds send silicates blasting through the air in "a perpetual storm of flying glass." NASA calls it a "hellscape."
Poltergeist, Draugr and Phobetor are three planets that orbit pulsar PSR B1257+12 at a healthy distance of 2,000 light-years from Earth. Don't book your vacation to this destination. The dead star pumps out deadly radiation. "Life as we know it could never form on these worlds," NASA said.
NASA also released a pair of evocative movie-style posters for these exoplanets. HD 189733 b's imaginary movie is called Rains of Terror, while the planetary trio stars in Zombie Worlds.
We may never get to visit these faraway inhospitable exoplanets, but just knowing they're out there should be enough to give you a vicarious Halloween fright.
