What's a good way to destroy the (a?) planet?

[Crono]

For either total planet destruction, or just surface ending all human and animal life.

Nuke the planet from orbit?
Giant laser/deathray?
Antimatter explosion?
Black hole?
Crash into the sun/supernova?
Super volcanoes?
Massive impact event?
Aliens?

Something else?

 

[krylon]

All of your choices are dumb. You should coax the sun into a red giant and/or super nova.

 

[Kelvrick]

Aliens. But at the end we fight back with a computer virus.

 

[hanoverphist]

biohazard that slowly eats the organic compounds all over earth.

 

[Leros]

It would be pretty hard to destroy a planet with surface explosions. Or explosions in general. Total destruction would need such a tremendous amount of energy.

Killing everything on the surface is easy.

 

[joesmoke]

blocking the sun as a last desperation against the robots...

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Well total planetary destruction is insane, you need a giant explosion of some sort. I suggest using a laser.

As for ending life? Bioweapon!

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Other suggestions
http://qntm.org/?destroy

 

[techs]

I just heard about it on the news.
Swine Flu.

 

[nakedfrog]

Some sort of deus ex machina molecular-level chain reaction?

 

[theflyingpig]

Aliens are the best way. But destroying the planet is unnecessary. You should have aliens that are obsessed with torturing the entire human race. They should have a technology that allows humans live forever, and to be burned, beaten, electrocuted, and stabbed without actually killing them. The aliens would be motivated by the bible, to turn earth into hell. They would light the continents on fire and make humans live in the inferno. Alien overseers would torture everyone for years on end, especially the innocent and the young. A book such as this would be magnificent.

 

[krylon]

Originally posted by: theflyingpig
Aliens are the best way. But destroying the planet is unnecessary. You should have aliens that are obsessed with torturing the entire human race. They should have a technology that allows humans live forever, and to be burned, beaten, electrocuted, and stabbed without actually killing them. The aliens would be motivated by the bible, to turn earth into hell. They would light the continents on fire and make humans live in the inferno. Alien overseers would torture everyone for years on end, especially the innocent and the young. A book such as this would be magnificent.

The bible is already the world's best seller.

 

[bobross419]

x/0

 

[torpid]

Scientists incorrectly simulate the collision of the milky way with andromeda and ultimately fail to prepare for the possibility that the solar system gets totally out of whack once ejected from the milky way boundaries, causing a slow and inescapable termination of all life on Earth.

 

[BoomerD]

Republicans and their "friends" in big business, especially the mining and oil companies.

Just turn them loose on the natural resources with no environmental restrictions.

 

[Albatross]

planets colliding.this reminds me of a joke..
two planets meet in space.first planet says to the other:you look kinda sick.
i have homo sapiens...

 

[Ramma2]

LHC creates gravitational distortion, increases gravity on earth by certain %. Massive tidal destruction as Earth pulls moon closer and closer, eventually resulting in the moon crashing into Earth.

Will Smith fails to save the day. Earth says "Welcome to Earf" to the moon.

 

[Linflas]

Doomsday machine that looks like a giant conch shell comes by and eats it.

 

[OCGuy]

Massive hardon collision...

 

[zerogear]

Humanity created nanobots programmed to 'clean' oil spills by eating carbon gone awol.

 

[ggnl]

I'm gonna go with anti-matter explosion 'cause that's how they did it in my favorite earth-destroying book (The Forge of God).

 

[sandorski]

Find a Star
??
Gamma Burst
Aim towards Earth
Destruction

 

[joesmoke]

Originally posted by: OCguy
Massive hardon collision...

at a trough urinal?

 

[Freejack2]

Overpopulation, and pollution. Just look at our world today, it works great.

 

[mundane]

Originally posted by: joesmoke
blocking the sun as a last desperation against the robots...

it was us who scorched the sky.


David Brin's Earth discusses some of the potential causes.