Product Description

A look at the creation and composition of asteroids and the frightening eventuality of a collision with the earth.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #334932 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Amazon.com Review
It would take an asteroid the size of Vermont crashing into the Earth to wipe out all life on our planet. We can probably go to sleep tonight without worrying about this happening. Yet a significantly smaller asteroid -- say, one that spans 10 football fields -- could wreak enormous damage on life as we know it. Even if it struck in the middle of an ocean, violent flooding could drown millions of people. Asteroids this size pass between the Earth and the moon with disturbing frequency, writes Patricia Barnes-Svarney. This book nicely combines history, science and engaging speculation. It's a must-read for doomsday aficionados.

About the Author
Patricia Barnes-Svarney is the editor/writer of the award-winning New York Public Library Science Desk Reference. She has published more than 350 articles in such magazines as Popular Science, Astronomy, Omni, and Air & Space.

Customer Reviews

Very good, if you are interested in the subject
The first chapters are a little bit too technical. However, you will learn a lot about the scientific background on asteroids and impacts. The chapters on how Earth has been hit in the past, the summary of the theory about the dinosaur extinction, and how the Chicxulub crater was found, are really good. The book also has a good coverage on subjects such as near-Earth objects, actual near-misses, what if?, and the Spaceguard survey.

If you became interested on these subjects after the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact on Jupiter, or because you are a Sc-Fi fan who like the "hard stuff" and read Clark's "The Hammer of God", Benford's "Shiva Descending", or Niven's "Lucifr's Hammer", this book is for you. You can deepen your scientific knowledge and learn why these fiction novels seem so real, specially those written before the Alvarez paradigm.