000			01828nam a22002777a 4500
999			_c87431 _d87431
003			CITU
005			20240523155013.0
008			240522b ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9781785784934
040			_aCITU - LRAC _bEnglish
041			_aeng
082	0	0	_a523.44
100	1		_aMay, Andrew _eauthor
245			_aCosmic impact : _bunderstanding the threat to Earth from asteroids and comets / _cAndrew May
264		1	_aLondon : _bIcon Books, Ltd, _c2019.
300			_a167 pages : _billustrations ; _c20 cm
336			_atext _btxt _2rdacontent
337			_aunmediated _bn _2rdamedia
338			_avolume _bn _2rdacarrier
500			_aIncludes index
520			_aAs 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
650		0	_aAsteroids collisions with Earth.
650		0	_aComets collisions with Earth.
650		0	_aNear-Earth objects.
942			_2ddc _cBK