Cosmic Impact, Andrew May
Cosmic Impact, Andrew May
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Cosmic Impact
Understanding the Threat to Earth from Asteroids and Comets

Author: Andrew May

Narrator: Shaun Grindell

Unabridged: 3 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/03/2021

Synopsis

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 realization that the dinosaurs were 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.

About Andrew May

Andrew May is a freelance writer and science consultant. He has written on subjects as diverse as the physical sciences, military technology, British history, and the paranormal. His recent books include pocket-sized biographies of Newton and Einstein, an eye-opening study of the relationship between pseudoscience and science fiction, and Destination Mars and Cosmic Impact in the Hot Science series.

About Shaun Grindell

Shaun Grindell is an award-winning audiobook narrator and accomplished actor who trained at The Calland School of Speech and Drama and The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in London. With over two hundred audiobook titles to his name, he enjoys narrating a multitude of genres.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Brian on March 04, 2019

There's something beguilingly attractive about end-of-the-world scenarios. In Cosmic Impact, Andrew May takes on the granddaddy of them all - an asteroid or comet hitting the Earth. We're familiar with the idea that the dinosaurs were wiped out by the fallout of such an impact (with some volcanic he......more

Goodreads review by Jessica on June 11, 2022

I needed something to listen to and this looked interesting. The first half was a bit hard to follow while doing other things though the author did a good job of keeping it simple and introducing new topics slowly. If you have a working knowledge of astronomy, you might find it slow. The second half......more

Goodreads review by Virat on November 21, 2021

"The only certainty is that at some point in the future an asteroid or comet will collide with planet Earth. How we cope with it is upto us." A riveting account of the asteroids and comets which one would generally consider as the apparitions in the sky but is much more fascinating than that. As his......more

Goodreads review by Otherwyrld on March 30, 2019

This rather slight book does what is says on the cover but doesn't go into real detail. It's not a bad book per se, I just wanted a bit more. The frequent references to science fiction books and films could be either annoying or entertaining depending on you perspective - I leaned more to the latter......more

Goodreads review by Ian on December 29, 2021

This was a good read and provides some valuable information on the real danger posed by comets and asteroids. I feel like I have read this somewhere previously, so it wasn't very profound for me. Its definitely a good reminder that there is a lot of noise made about space objects hitting earth, litt......more

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