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Zusatztext " Near-Earth Objects is an excellent! short! very detailed! complete reference on rocks flying through Earth-space. . . . [T]his book is highly recommended. It is a wonderful resource! very well written and full of great footnotes." ---Haym Benaroya! Quest Informationen zum Autor Donald K. Yeomans is a fellow and senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory! where he is manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office and supervisor of the Solar System Dynamics Group. He is the author of Comets: A Chronological History of Observation! Science! Myth! and Folklore . Klappentext Of all the natural disasters that could befall us! only an Earth impact by a large comet or asteroid has the potential to end civilization in a single blow. Yet these near-Earth objects also offer tantalizing clues to our solar system's origins! and someday could even serve as stepping-stones for space exploration. In this book! Donald Yeomans introduces readers to the science of near-Earth objects--its history! applications! and ongoing quest to find near-Earth objects before they find us. He takes readers behind the scenes of today's efforts to find! track! and study near-Earth objects. He shows how the same comets and asteroids most likely to collide with us could also be mined for precious natural resources like water and oxygen! and used as watering holes and fueling stations for expeditions to Mars and the outermost reaches of our solar system. Zusammenfassung Introduces readers to the science of near-Earth objects - its history, applications, and ongoing quest to find near-Earth objects before they find us. This title offers an understanding of the threats posed by near-Earth objects, and also explains how early collisions with them delivered the ingredients that made life on Earth possible. Inhaltsverzeichnis Illustrations vii Preface xi Acknowledgments xiii Chapter 1 Earth's Closest Neighbors 1 Chapter 2 The Solar System's Origin: The Classical View 15 Chapter 3 How and Where Do Near-Earth Objects Form? 29 Chapter 4 Near-Earth Objects as the Enablers and Destroyers of Life 47 Chapter 5 Discovering and Tracking Near-Earth Objects 57 Chapter 6 The Nature of Asteroids and Comets 79 Chapter 7 Nature's Natural Resources and the Human Exploration of Our Solar System 100 Chapter 8 Near-Earth Objects as Threats to Earth 109 Chapter 9 Predicting the Likelihood of an Earth Impact 125 Chapter 10 Deflecting an Earth-Threatening Near-Earth Object 140 References 155 Index of Asteroid and Cometary Objects 159 General Index 161 ...
