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Published online 15 October 1999 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news991021-1
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Green planet or desert world?
Simulations of life on alien planets could tell us about the part played by vegetation in regulating the climate closer to home.
For those who have wondered what life would be like on the alien planets of the Star Wars films, a study conducted at the University of Hamburg, Germany, should now assuage your curiosity. But Klaus Fraedrich and colleagues at Hamburg's Meteorological Institute are not conducting idle speculation about would-be worlds - their work casts light on the role that vegetation plays in the Earth's climate system.
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