Sixty-five million years ago, a gigantic asteroid collided with Earth. The resulting dust clouds and fire storm blotted out the sunlight, destroying much of the animal, plant, and fish life most notably, the dinosaurs. What would happen if another giant asteroid found itself on a collision course with Earth? This is the most comprehensive current book for general readers to address the threats and potential benefits of asteroids. Space experts Cox and James Chestek explain the major differences between comets and asteroids and describe what might happen should the Earth suffer a collision with either one of them, a distinct future possibility.
Donald w. Cox, ED.D., has authored ten books on space flight. He was NASA's first coast-to-coast lecturer and is a leading authority on space flight. James H. Chestek, PE., (1928-1997) retired from a thirty-five-year career as an aerospace engineer, where his work focused on a variety of space projects, from interplanetary probes to the Strategic Defense Initiative.
"One of their more frightening conclusions is that the risk of death in the next 50 years from a collision with an asteroid is greater than that from an airline crash or any other type of natural catastrophe. This very readable book looks at not only the horrors involved in a collision, but at the great benefits we could accumulate from mining and capturing these celestial neighbors." -Rocky Mountain News
"...informative, reasoned and interesting." -San Diego Union-Tribune
338 pages (Illustrations, Appendix, Index) ISBN 1-57392-271-4
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