A desert planet is a single-biome planet on which the climate is mostly desert, with little or no natural precipitation. Desert planets are known to exist; Mars is often considered a prime example. Indeed, many terrestrial planets would be considered desert planets by this definition. However, the term is often used to refer to desert planets that remain hospitable for life.
A relatively common motif in science fiction, the concept includes both real and fictional planets, and is sometimes accompanied by elements of hydraulic despotism. Perhaps the most famous fictional examples are Arrakis, the setting for much of the Dune series of novels by Frank Herbert, and Tatooine of the Star Wars universe.
Read more about Desert Planet: Habitability
Famous quotes containing the words desert and/or planet:
“There were three classes of inhabitants who either frequent or inhabit the country which we had now entered: first, the loggers, who, for a part of the year, the winter and spring, are far the most numerous, but in the summer, except for a few explorers for timber, completely desert it; second, the few settlers I have named, the only permanent inhabitants, who live on the verge of it, and help raise supplies for the former; third, the hunters, mostly Indians, who range over it in their season.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Until they saw, over the mists
of Venus, two fish creatures stop
on spangled legs and crawl
from the belly of the sea.
And from the planet park
they heard the new fruit drop.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)