spontaneous planetary break up theme

A planet suddenly breaks apart and becomes rubble for no particular reason.

Examples

Planets in the Selcundi Drema sector were spontaneously breaking up as a result of natural geologic cataclysms in tng2x15 "Pen Pals".

3 total · 1 major · 2 minor

StoryLevelMotivation
movie: The Night the World Exploded (1957) major A scientific expedition into the bowels of the Earth discover massive quantities of Element 112 that could explode at any moment and blow the entire planet to smithereens.
movie: Man of Steel (2013) minor The planet Krypton's core had become destabilized from mining of the planet's core and crumbled into pieces.
tng2x15 minor Drema V :: Drema V was falling to pieces