Science Resources RSS Feeds
|
 |
 |
 |
| View Larger Image | Impact Earth: Asteroids, Comets and Meteors : The Growing Threat | Hardcoverby Austen Atkinson (Author)
| List Price: | $24.95 | | Price: | $18.96 | | You Save: | $5.99 (24%) | | | Available: | Temporarily out of stock. Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your credit card will not be charged until we ship the item. |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | Virgin Publishing | | Edition: | illustrated editionth Edition | | Page Count: | 266 Pages | | Publication Date: | June 01, 1999 | | Sales Rank: | 2,977,864nd |
|
EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
As more asteroids enter our solar system, our chances of a collision increase by the day. This work examines the impact phenomenon describing the importance of "Deathrock" collisions in the Earth's history, the potential dangers and alleged cover-ups of near misses. |
Amazon.com Review
Over the past decade, the United States' nuclear-detection system and spy satellites have registered 250 atomic-bomb-sized detonations on and about our planet. Why were we not told? Well, we were, now and again, when someone felt like mentioning it, and when the world's media, starved of other news, could be bothered to run the story. Why were these explosions not newsworthy? Because they come not from the arsenals of hostile states, but from comets and asteroids impacting with the Earth's atmosphere. We assume these events are rare. They are not. Their time-averaged death toll equals that of earthquakes and major floods. We assume these impacts rarely affect our lives. Author Austen Atkinson convincingly demonstrates that meteor and asteroid strikes have, and will again, skew human history in spectacular and terrible ways. Impacts from objects no bigger than a baseball can, under the right conditions, wipe out cities. There is nothing we can do about them, as such objects are too small to be detected. On the other hand, bigger objects--the planet killers of films like Deep Impact and Armageddon--can be detected, and diverted, with existing technology but only if there is the global will to act accordingly. Impact Earth is a call to political arms as well as a work of popular science. It is deliberately sensationalist, and entirely serious. Atkinson, like many of the distinguished observers and scientists he quotes, is attempting to put cosmic debris strikes on the world political agenda. He is entitled to be loud. --Simon Ings, Amazon.co.uk |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 4 reviews)
|
Idiosyncratic but fascinating work  4 Stars
July 25, 2002
I can understand why Impact Earth triggers a powerful response - it's the sort of topic that polarises people's opinions. Either you are open minded or you reject the idea of asteroid and comet impact. I was a sceptic about the so called impact threat, but recent news articles pushed me to learn more. Austin Atkinson's book sets out to remind us that life is precious. A worthy goal. More than that it succeeds in offering a number of leading scientists a chance to voice their concerns and feelings about how the impact threat may be averted. That done, the author proceeds to paint a picture of how destructive an impact might be and uses the computer modelling carried out by the shock physics laboratory at Sandia National Laboratory (they who model the effects of nuclear war for the US government) to reinforce his point. In the second half of the book Atkinson uses the facts he's outlined to create a fictional scenario - to allow readers to understand how it would feel to live through such an impact. It's very effective. I started out a sceptic, but Impact Earth changed my mind.
| |
Cryptoscience at best. by Jerald R Lovell (Clinton Township, Michigan United States)  1 Stars
March 13, 2002
There is something more than vaguely disconcerting about those who marshall armies of fact, then, having done so, proceed to put a highly speculative, "must be a conspiracy somewhere, somehow" twist on it all. This book would have been a lot better without Nostradamus, Genesis, and all that conspiracy glop. As it is, I wasted my money. Stick to the facts, and maybe, just maybe, someone will believe you.
| |
Terrifyingly authentic popular science makes great impact  5 Stars
November 02, 1999
Author Austen Atkinson has revolutionised popular science with this book. He has taken the improbable-sounding possibility of a major meteorite impact and animated it in such a way as to make the reader seriously consider the prospect and seriously ponder about how best to lobby government to protect us. It is a book blessed with great wit, intelligence and authority.
| |
A chilling and captivating book 5 Stars
June 25, 1999
Impact Earth, Asteroids, Comets, and Meteoroids, The Growing ThreatBesides being a captivating subject I was impressed by the way Austen Atkinson researched the subject so thoroughly and gave a chillingly detailed and logical treatment of the risk of Earth impacting with comets, asteroids and other bodies in space.This book is a call to action on a par with Rachel Carlson's Silent Spring, in my opinion. It should be required reading for every legislator, teacher and anyone under the age of 30 with hopes of seeing middle and later life. Austen Atkinson did something very unique in Impact Earth. He added a second book to the end, a fictional account of what it might be like to experience a major impact. If the first book does not get attention, the second surely will. It adds a human element that is missing from other more technical books on this subject. Both parts of Impact Earth are expertly done and written for the lay person in a manner that makes the impact risk clear and obvious to anyone able to read. Austen is a great writer. His style is easy reading and his development is extremely logical and captivating. This is one for every middle school library and a great gift item for the skeptic on your list. Larry Robinson Sunflower Observatory Kansas
| |
|
|
