Universe of Monsters

Take a tour of these distant planets that might make good homes for horror-movie monsters. After a visit to these nightmare worlds, you may never want to leave Earth again!

Illustration of monster backlit by lightning

House of Frankenstein - Discovered 2008

Lightning cracks against the maelstrom of a Neptune-like sky, illuminating the hideous figure of Frankenstein’s monster. Scorned by humankind as a science experiment gone horrifically awry, we’ve found a stormy home planet for Frank Jr. on HAT-P-11b, 122 light-years away.

Illustration of bats and a caped vampire backlit by a red star.

Horror of Dracula - Discovered 2017

Was that chill on the back of your neck the brush of a bat’s wings, or Dracula himself, hunting you through the night? Don’t look over your shoulder; we’ve found a planet with a red sky for Dracula to drink the blood of his unlucky victims.

Wolf Man - Discovered 2016

The night comes alive as the clouds part to reveal the full moon, and half-human lips release an unearthly howl. Werewolves could roam free on TRAPPIST-1b, a planet illuminated by the light of six full "moons."

A trio of mummies stand in front of a dusty background.

Mummy Returns - Discovered 2016

A dry, rasping rattle echoes off the cool walls of the tomb, a sound almost human in the solitude of the desert. We’d like to relocate the mummy’s curse to an ancient dusty home on Proxima Centauri b.

A trio of skeletons march toward a flaming horizon.

Army of Darkness - Discovered 1999

When the skeletons rise on Halloween night, their bones clatter as they leave their graves. But we found a place a pile of bones won't mind: a planet metaphorically having its flesh stripped from its bones.

Zombieland - Discovered 1994

Three dead planets shamble through the twisted magnetic fields of their corpse star that exploded eons ago. What better place to put a horde of zombies than the pulsar planets, each named after an undead creature?