Cosmic Impact

As end-of-the-world scenarios go, an apocalyptic collision with an



asteroid or comet is the new kid on the block, gaining respectability only in



the last decade of the 20th century with the realisation that the dinosaurs had



been wiped out by just such an impact.



 



Now the science community is making up for lost time, with



worldwide efforts to track the thousands of potentially hazardous near-Earth



objects, and plans for high-tech hardware that could deflect an incoming object



from a collision course – a procedure depicted, with little regard for



scientific accuracy, in several Hollywood movies.



 



Astrophysicist and science writer Andrew May disentangles



fact from fiction in this fast-moving and entertaining account, covering the



nature and history of comets and asteroids, the reason why some orbits are more



hazardous than others, the devastating local and global effects that an impact



event would produce, and – more optimistically – the way future space missions



could avert a catastrophe.



Andrew May is a freelance writer and former scientist, with a PhD in astrophysics. He has written five books in Icon's Hot Science series: Destination Mars, Cosmic Impact, Astrobiology, The Space Business and The Science of Music. He lives in Somerset.



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