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Fire in the sky : cosmic collisions, killer asteroids, and the race to defend Earth / Gordon L. Dillow.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Scribner, 2019Copyright date: ©2019Edition: First Scribner hardcover editionDescription: ix, 277 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates: illustrations (chiefly color) ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
  • still image
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781501187742
  • 1501187740
Subject(s):
Contents:
Introduction -- Impact! -- Miraculous apparitions in the ayre -- Asteroid miners -- Star wounds -- T-rex with a string of pearls -- Asteroid hunters -- Planetary defense -- Asteroid killers -- Asteroid wars -- Epilogue.
Summary: "An historical survey about asteroid hits sustained by Earth and the defenses being prepared against future asteroid-caused catastrophe"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 523.44 D579 Available 33111009531191
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Combining history, pop science, and in-depth reporting, a fascinating account of asteroids that hit Earth long ago, and those streaming toward us now, as well as how we are preparing against asteroid-caused catastrophe.

One of these days, warns Gordon Dillow, the Earth will be hit by a comet or asteroid of potentially catastrophic size. The only question is when . In the meantime, we need to get much better at finding objects hurtling our way, and if they're large enough to penetrate the atmosphere without burning up, figure out what to do about them.

We owe many of science's most important discoveries to the famed Meteor Crater, a mile-wide dimple on the Colorado Plateau created by an asteroid hit 50,000 years ago. In his masterfully researched Fire in the Sky , Dillow unpacks what the Crater has to tell us. Prior to the early 1900s, the world believed that all craters--on the Earth and Moon--were formed by volcanic activity. Not so. The revelation that Meteor Crater and others like it were formed by impacts with space objects has led to a now accepted theory about what killed off the dinosaurs, and it has opened up a new field of asteroid observation, which has recently brimmed with urgency. Dillow looks at great asteroid hits of the past and spends time with modern-day asteroid hunters and defense planning experts, including America's first Planetary Defense Officer.

Satellite sensors confirm that a Hiroshima-scale blast occurs in the atmosphere every year, and a smaller, one-kiloton blast every month. While Dillow makes clear that the objects above can be deadly, he consistently inspires awe with his descriptions of their size, makeup, and origins. At once a riveting work of popular science and a warning to not take for granted the space objects hurtling overhead, Fire in the Sky is, above all, a testament to our universe's celestial wonders.

"An historical survey about asteroid hits sustained by Earth and the defenses being prepared against future asteroid-caused catastrophe"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-267) and index.

Introduction -- Impact! -- Miraculous apparitions in the ayre -- Asteroid miners -- Star wounds -- T-rex with a string of pearls -- Asteroid hunters -- Planetary defense -- Asteroid killers -- Asteroid wars -- Epilogue.

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