Near-Earth Objects

The subtitle of this book says it all. As a planetary scientist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Yeomans’ job was to plot the courses of known and newly-discovered NEOs – that is, asteroids and comets that in space terms come close to Earth’s orbit – and determine if and when they might be on a collision course with our planet. With more than 25,000 known NEOs orbiting around up there, it’s not an easy task. But Yeomans makes the crucial point: it’s not the space rocks we know about that pose the biggest threat, but rather the thousands and thousands… show more.

If you think astronomy is useless, read this book. Most asteroids dwell in the space between Mars and Jupiter, but every so often one gets flung into the inner Solar System on a collision course with Earth. Scientists believe the dinosaurs were wiped out when a 10-mile wide asteroid collided with the Earth. How often does this happen? We’re not sure. Should we worry? Yes. This engaging book describes NASA’s plans to search for these killers, to know how often they hit the Earth, and to destroy them before they destroy us.