This Island Earth is a 1955 American science fiction film directed by Joseph M. Newman. It is based on the novel of the same name byRaymond F. Jones.The Rare Earth hypothesis argues that complex extraterrestrial life requires an Earth-like planet with similar circumstance and that few if any such planets exist.The Life and Death of Planet Earth is a book by Peter Ward about how the new science of astrobiology charts the ultimate fate of our world.A runaway greenhouse effect is a process in which a net positive feedback between surface temperature and atmospheric opacity increases the strength of the greenhouse effect on a planet until its oceans boil away.The Permian Extinction is the Earth's most severe known extinction event, with up to 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species becoming extinct.The three ages of dinosaurs were marked out by geologists to distinguish among various types of geologic strata laid down tens of millions of years ago.Hydrogen sulfide is a colorless, flammable, extremely hazardous gas with a “rotten egg” smell. The five worst mass extinctions are time periods in the history of life on Earth during which exceptionally large numbers of species have gone extinct.