Editing Doomsday device (section)

{{Short description|Construct which could destroy all life on a planet or a planet itself}}
{{For|the professional wrestling move|Doomsday device (wrestling)}}
[[File:Castle Romeo.jpg|thumb|upright|Many hypothetical doomsday devices are based on [[Salted bomb|salted]] [[hydrogen bomb]]s creating large amounts of [[nuclear fallout]].]]

A '''doomsday device''' is a hypothetical construction – usually a weapon or weapons system – which could destroy all life on a planet, particularly [[Earth]], or destroy the planet itself, bringing "[[Human extinction|doomsday]]", a term used for the end of planet Earth. Most hypothetical constructions rely on [[hydrogen bombs]] being made arbitrarily large, assuming there are no concerns about delivering them to a target (see [[History of the Teller–Ulam design|Teller–Ulam design]]) or that they can be "[[salted bomb|salted]]" with materials designed to create long-lasting and hazardous fallout (e.g., a [[cobalt bomb]]).

Doomsday devices and the [[nuclear holocaust]] they bring about have been present in literature and art especially in the 20th century, when advances in [[science]] and [[technology]] made world destruction (or at least the eradication of all human life) a credible scenario. Many classics in the genre of [[science fiction]] take up the theme in this respect. The term "doomsday machine" itself is attested from 1960,<ref>{{OEtymD|doomsday}}</ref> but the [[alliteration|alliterative]] "doomsday device" has since become the more popular phrase.