Download or read book Hazards Due to Comets and Asteroids written by Tom Gehrels and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 1340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1993, the U.S. Department of Defense declassified information dealing with frequent explosions in the upper atmosphere caused by meteoric impact. It is estimated that impacts have occurred of a magnitude equivalent to the atomic bomb detonated at Hiroshima. Not all such space voyagers meet their end in the atmosphere, however; huge craters attest to the bombardment of earth over millions of years, and a major impact may have resulted in the extinction of dinosaurs. An impact in Siberia near the beginning of this century proves that such events are not confined to geologic time. Hazards Due to Comets and Asteroids marks a significant step in the attempt to come to grips with the threats posed by such phenomena. It brings together more than one hundred scientists from around the world, who draw on observational and theoretical research to focus on the technical problems related to all aspects of dealing with these hazards: searching for and identifying hazardous comets and asteroids; describing their statistics and characteristics; intercepting and altering the orbits of dangerous objects; and applying existent technologies—rocket boosters, rendezvous and soft-landing techniques, instrumentation—to such missions. The book considers defensive options for diverting or disrupting an approaching body, including solar sails, kinetic-energy impacts, nuclear explosives, robotic mass drivers, and various propulsion systems. A cataclysmic impact posing a threat to life on Earth is a possibility that tomorrow's technology is capable of averting. This book examines in depth the reality of the threat and proposes practical measures that can be initiated now should we ever need to deal with it.

Download or read book Mitigation of Hazardous Comets and Asteroids written by M. J. S. Belton and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-09-06 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is known that large asteroids and comets can collide with the Earth with severe consequences. Although the chances of a collision in a person's lifetime are small, collisions are a random process and could occur at any time. This book collects the latest thoughts and ideas of scientists concerned with mitigating the threat of hazardous asteroids and comets. It reviews current knowledge of the population of potential colliders, including their numbers, locations, orbits, and how warning times might be improved. The structural properties and composition of their interiors and surfaces are reviewed, and their orbital response to the application of pulses of energy is discussed. Difficulties of operating in space near, or on the surface of, very low mass objects are examined. The book concludes with a discussion of the problems faced in communicating the nature of the impact hazard to the public.

Download or read book Defending Planet Earth written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2010-07-21 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States spends approximately $4 million each year searching for near-Earth objects (NEOs). The objective is to detect those that may collide with Earth. The majority of this funding supports the operation of several observatories that scan the sky searching for NEOs. This, however, is insufficient in detecting the majority of NEOs that may present a tangible threat to humanity. A significantly smaller amount of funding supports ways to protect the Earth from such a potential collision or "mitigation." In 2005, a Congressional mandate called for NASA to detect 90 percent of NEOs with diameters of 140 meters of greater by 2020. Defending Planet Earth: Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies identifies the need for detection of objects as small as 30 to 50 meters as these can be highly destructive. The book explores four main types of mitigation including civil defense, "slow push" or "pull" methods, kinetic impactors and nuclear explosions. It also asserts that responding effectively to hazards posed by NEOs requires national and international cooperation. Defending Planet Earth: Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies is a useful guide for scientists, astronomers, policy makers and engineers.

Download or read book Hazards Due to Comets and Asteroids written by Tom Gehrels and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 1317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1993, the U.S. Department of Defense declassified information dealing with frequent explosions in the upper atmosphere caused by meteoric impact. It is estimated that impacts have occurred of a magnitude equivalent to the atomic bomb detonated at Hiroshima. Not all such space voyagers meet their end in the atmosphere, however; huge craters attest to the bombardment of earth over millions of years, and a major impact may have resulted in the extinction of dinosaurs. An impact in Siberia near the beginning of this century proves that such events are not confined to geologic time. Hazards Due to Comets and Asteroids marks a significant step in the attempt to come to grips with the threats posed by such phenomena. It brings together more than one hundred scientists from around the world, who draw on observational and theoretical research to focus on the technical problems related to all aspects of dealing with these hazards: searching for and identifying hazardous comets and asteroids; describing their statistics and characteristics; intercepting and altering the orbits of dangerous objects; and applying existent technologies—rocket boosters, rendezvous and soft-landing techniques, instrumentation—to such missions. The book considers defensive options for diverting or disrupting an approaching body, including solar sails, kinetic-energy impacts, nuclear explosives, robotic mass drivers, and various propulsion systems. A cataclysmic impact posing a threat to life on Earth is a possibility that tomorrow's technology is capable of averting. This book examines in depth the reality of the threat and proposes practical measures that can be initiated now should we ever need to deal with it.

Download or read book International Seminar on Nuclear War and Planetary Emergencies written by R. Ragaini and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2011 with total page 630 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ecology of international security / Charles D. Ferguson. Assessment of RDD event medical response, recovery, and mitigation in a world of one science / Annette Sobel. Defeating religious terrorism - what will it take? / Pervez Hoodbhoy. Terrorism threats due to weapons of mass disturbance / Friedrich Steinhausler. Cell phones, texting, position reporting, and self-assembly in emergency response management / Robert V. Duncan -- 10. Special session : lectio magistralis. Why science is needed in everyday life / Ignazio La Russa -- 11. Climate. Focus : data, mathematical structures and predictions. Carbon dioxide, friend or foe. William Happer. Climate sensitivity : various approaches / Richard S. Lindzen. Climategate and the inquiries / Stephen McIntyre. Energy legislation in the USA / Richard Wilson -- 12. WFS general meeting. PMP reports - debate and conclusions. Permanent monitoring panel on motivations for terrorism / Lord John Alderdice. 2010 progress report of the MCD-2/7 project and 2011 research project. East-Africa AIDS Research Centre at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI), Entebbe Uganda / Franco M. Buonaguro. Mother and child health PMP : maternal and child mortality is a planetary emergency, report of 2010 activities / Nathalie Charpak, J.G. Ruiz and S.D. Leon-Mendoza. Permanent monitoring panel report on limits of development / Christopher D. Ellis. Pollution permanent monitoring panel - 2010 annual report / Lorne G. Everett. Report of the energy permanent monitoring panel / William Fulkerson, J, Ongena and C. Difiglio. PMP report for cosmic objects / Walter F. Huebner. Annual report permanent monitoring panel on mitigation of terrorist acts / Alan Leigh Moore, Jr. Information security PMP report / Henning Wegener and Jody R. Westby -- 13. Seminar participants -- 14. Ettore Majorana Erice Science for Peace Prize

Download or read book Meteor Showers and their Parent Comets written by Peter Jenniskens and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-09-14 with total page 804 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meteor Showers and their Parent Comets is a unique handbook for astronomers interested in observing meteor storms and outbursts. Spectacular displays of 'shooting stars' are created when the Earth's orbit crosses a meteoroid stream, as each meteoroid causes a bright light when it enters our atmosphere at high speed. Jenniskens, an active meteor storm chaser, explains how meteoroid streams originate from the decay of meteoroids, comets and asteroids, and how they cause meteor showers on Earth. He includes the findings of recent space missions to comets and asteroids, the risk of meteor impacts on Earth, and how meteor showers may have seeded the Earth with ingredients that made life possible. All known meteor showers are identified, accompanied by fascinating details on the most important showers and their parent comets. The book predicts when exceptional meteor showers will occur over the next fifty years, making it a valuable resource for both amateur and professional astronomers.

Download or read book Averting Disaster Science For Peace In A Perilous Age The Erice International Seminars On Nuclear War And Planetary Emergencies From 1981 To 2008 written by William A Barletta and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2009-07-20 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book of testimonials from participants to the famous Erice International Seminars on Nuclear War and Planetary Emergencies. The Erice International Seminars with their multidisciplinary scientific audiences have addressed, since 1981, a long list of planetary problems and emergencies. This book describes one of the most exciting intellectual and political ventures of the later part of the 20th century, of the decades of the Cold War, a period of bristling East-West tension with the omnipresent possibility that its management might get out of hand, and a war of unimaginable proportion and potential damage eruption. The Erice International Seminars — held in an idyllic setting of a small location in Western Sicily — were the attempt to stem these perilous tides, and to put science at the service of political problem-solving in a new, open and interdisciplinary approach aimed, at the highest scientific level. Thousands of top-level scientists, the best in their respective fields, among them many Nobel Prize laureates, have participated in the Seminars and their interdisciplinary working groups as well as the Permanent Monitoring Panels, and have helped to generate a steady and influential flow of scientific insight. United in their work in a unique community of knowledge, wisdom and shared values, these eminent scientists testify, today, the importance and the impact of the Erice International Seminars during the last 28 years.

Download or read book Near Earth Objects written by Donald K. Yeomans and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016-11-08 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An insider's look at the science of near-Earth comets and asteroids 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. In its course around the sun, the Earth passes through a veritable shooting gallery of millions of nearby comets and asteroids. One such asteroid is thought to have plunged into our planet sixty-five million years ago, triggering a global catastrophe that killed off the dinosaurs. Yeomans provides an up-to-date and accessible guide for understanding the threats posed by near-Earth objects, and also explains how early collisions with them delivered the ingredients that made life on Earth possible. He shows how later impacts spurred evolution, allowing only the most adaptable species to thrive—in fact, we humans may owe our very existence to objects that struck our planet. Yeomans 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.

Download or read book Comet Asteroid Impacts and Human Society written by Peter T. Bobrowsky and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-06-10 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading specialists in various disciplines were first invited to a multidisciplinary workshop funded by ICSU on the topic to gain a better appreciation and perspective on the subject of comet/asteroid impacts as viewed by different disciplines. This volume provides a necessary link between various disciplines and comet/asteroid impacts.

Download or read book The Sun the Earth and Near earth Space written by John A. Eddy and published by Government Printing Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: " ... Concise explanations and descriptions - easily read and readily understood - of what we know of the chain of events and processes that connect the Sun to the Earth, with special emphasis on space weather and Sun-Climate."--Dear Reader.

Download or read book Comet of the Century written by Fred Schaaf and published by Copernicus Books. This book was released on 1997 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The twentieth century has been a disappointment, comet-wise, but the object now approaching, Comet Hale-Bopp,bears a striking resemblance to the Great Comet of 1811,the biggest-headed and most enduringly visible comet everknown. Will Hale-Bopp be our Comet of the Century? Inthis book, whose publication is timed to coincide ......

Download or read book The End of the Dinosaurs written by Charles Frankel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-09-23 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The End of the Dinosaurs gives a detailed account of the great mass extinction that rocked the Earth 65 million years ago, and focuses on the discovery of the culprit: the Chicxulub impact crater in Mexico. It recounts the birth of the cosmic hypothesis, the controversy that preceded its acceptance, the search for the crater, its discovery and ongoing exploration, and the effect of the giant impact on the biosphere. Other mass extinctions in the fossil record are reviewed, as is the threat of asteroids and comets to our planet today. The account of the impact and its aftermath is suitable for general readers. The description of the crater geology is in enough detail to interest students of the earth sciences. A detailed index and bibliography are included.

Download or read book Physics and Technology for Future Presidents written by Richard A. Muller and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-04-12 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Physics for future world leaders Physics and Technology for Future Presidents contains the essential physics that students need in order to understand today's core science and technology issues, and to become the next generation of world leaders. From the physics of energy to climate change, and from spy technology to quantum computers, this is the only textbook to focus on the modern physics affecting the decisions of political leaders and CEOs and, consequently, the lives of every citizen. How practical are alternative energy sources? Can satellites really read license plates from space? What is the quantum physics behind iPods and supermarket scanners? And how much should we fear a terrorist nuke? This lively book empowers students possessing any level of scientific background with the tools they need to make informed decisions and to argue their views persuasively with anyone—expert or otherwise. Based on Richard Muller's renowned course at Berkeley, the book explores critical physics topics: energy and power, atoms and heat, gravity and space, nuclei and radioactivity, chain reactions and atomic bombs, electricity and magnetism, waves, light, invisible light, climate change, quantum physics, and relativity. Muller engages readers through many intriguing examples, helpful facts to remember, a fun-to-read text, and an emphasis on real-world problems rather than mathematical computation. He includes chapter summaries, essay and discussion questions, Internet research topics, and handy tips for instructors to make the classroom experience more rewarding. Accessible and entertaining, Physics and Technology for Future Presidents gives students the scientific fluency they need to become well-rounded leaders in a world driven by science and technology. Leading universities that have adopted this book include: Harvard Purdue Rice University University of Chicago Sarah Lawrence College Notre Dame Wellesley Wesleyan University of Colorado Northwestern Washington University in St. Louis University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign Fordham University of Miami George Washington University Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

Download or read book Taming Liquid Hydrogen written by Virginia Parker Dawson and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Question and Answer Guide to Astronomy written by Pierre-Yves Bely and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-23 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains 250 questions and answers about astronomy, particular for the amateur astronomer.

Download or read book Earth System Analysis written by Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since this new science is of an unprecedented interdisciplinary nature, the book does not merely take stock of its numerous ingredients, but also delivers their multifaceted integration. The resulting master paradigm - the co-evolution of nature and anthroposphere within a geo-cybernetic continuum of processes - is based on a structured manifold of partial paradigms with their specific ranges. Most importantly, this serves the scientific foundation of a meaningful, safe and efficient environment and development management for solving the most burning questions concerning humankind and its natural environment. The more concrete elucidation of the natural and human dimensions, as well as various attempts and instruments of integration are represented in the different parts of the book, while the didactic quality is heightened by many allegoric illustrations.

Download or read book Comets in the 21st Century written by Daniel C Boice and published by . This book was released on 2019-04-24 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever wondered what comets are and why astronomers spend so much time studying them? Now, a comet expert and an astronomical historian have come together to produce this unique book. Using their several decades of teaching experience, the authors have concisely presented the information you need to comprehend these majestic apparitions that grace our night skies. No mathematical proficiency is needed. In fact, this book doesn't contain a single equation. Comets are cosmic Rosetta stones, bridging our current knowledge by digging back to the earliest days of our solar systems. How did life arise on Earth? Did comets play a significant role in bringing water and the necessary organic matter to our early Earth? How about the dinosaurs? Were they driven to extinction by a cometary impact 66 million years ago? Comets may be both the enablers and destroyers of life on Earth as we know it. These are some of the tantalizing questions discussed here. If you so desire, steps are given to join the ranks of amateur comet hunters. Astronomy is one of the last sciences where amateurs play a significant role. Your reward for discovery? A comet officially bearing your name in the history books. The next great comet is on its way, we just do not know when it will arrive. Armed with this book, you will be ready to enjoy this unforgettable event.