Customer Reviews

Impact!: The Threat of Comets and Asteroids

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book really helps make a lot of things clear about comets and asteroids. I think some people might be turned off, or made suspicious, by the somewhat lurid cover, but please don't be among those people. The book is highly lucid, extremely intelligent, and absolutely terrifying.

Dr. Verschuur is a well-respected astronomer, and clearly one of the reasons that he is so highly respected, is his facility for communicating complex information in an understandable way. In this book, he carefully walks the reader through logically presented discussions of the dinosaur-killing asteroid; the tsunamis (huge ocean waves) that would result from an asteroid landing in the sea; the history of the way scientists have thought about the threat of asteroids; and the statistical likelihood that you or I will be slain by an errant asteroid (about 1 in 20,000, which is approximately the same as the chance of dying in a plane crash). While, admittedly, current efforts to prevent plane crashes are stepped up from the norm, doesn't it seem as though we should be taking vastly greater precautions to detect near-Earth asteroids which could destroy civilization???

Dr. Vershuur's account of this threat is very level-headed, and perceptively written. He asks why so many of us have trouble psychologically, conceptualizing the reality of this threat. He also deals, cautiously, with the possibility that ancient legends from around the world may actually tell of asteroid strikes in pre-historic times. This is brave of him to even mention this kind of thing, because it verges on speculation. Scientists are not in the business of irresponsible speculation, after all -- their business is science! They risk grave professional consequences, if they even attempt to discuss such issues. But Dr. Verschuur is very good about alerting the reader to the controversial nature of efforts to extract scientific meaning from the ore of myth. Anyway, he touches on the topic, and it is sometimes interestingly plausible, to my mind at least.

Probably the best thing about this book, is that it helps to alleviate the almost religious terror that the prospect of such collisions produce in most of us. Think of the movie "Armageddon." What a calm, objective, dispassionately conceived title for a movie -- NOT! That movie makes us think about asteroid strikes as a highly infrequent, totally overwhelming event that only Bruce Willis would be able to handle (ha ha). Dr. Verschuur's book, on the other hand, helps us to see that the Earth gets hit CONSTANTLY by asteroids, and it's just a question of understanding the frequency with which we get nailed by the bigger ones.

We learn here that, for example, the Earth gets hit by an asteroid large enough to disrupt a global civilization approximately once every 5,000 years. That's APPROXIMATELY. It can vary by thousands of years. This is just the statistical likelihood, averaged out over millions of years by analyzing the age of craters on Earth, nearby planets, and the moon. We learn that an asteroid with a diameter of 500 meters would probably destroy civilization, and that one that was over 1,000 meters would result in the death of virtually the entire world population of humans. For perspective, the one that finally killed the dinosaurs was about 10,000 meters across. Asteroids that big are rare -- but some are even bigger.

Most asteroids are not quite this threatening, but none are benign. Dr. Vershuur's book really helps us to understand things that more people should be thinking about. My only problem with this book is that I wish it included an appendix of ideas that people should try to implement, as precautionary measures. One example that IS included is the importance of giving money to the (very few) institutions that watch the skies. However, I would like to see a book like this also mention promoting educational initiatives that encourage highly localized electrical power generation options, such as wind energy, in case our global economy is suddenly obliterated. Most importantly, I wish there were a section stressing the importance of learning to grow FOOD in hydroponic, protected, indoor environments, so people would have renewable food supplies if a sudden winter, lasting for years, were brought on by all the dust an asteroid strike would throw up into the sky. No country on Earth has more than a few months of food stored up at any given time. If a major asteroid strike provoked a "nuclear winter" type of scenario, virtually everyone who survived would starve, without precautionary measures.

Still, basically this book is simply fantastic. Definitely two thumbs up.

No writer out there does a better job of explaining science to the interested non-scientist than Verschuur. Impact! is a well-researched and beautifully-written book. It came out before all the Hollywood hype so it never made it to the best-seller list, but if you're interested in this subject, don't miss this one! Learn the truth behind the "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact" movies from a world-renowned expert. Astronomy has recently lost two of its most eloquent ambassadors to the non-scientific world - Carl Sagan and Gene Shoemaker. Verschuur could easily fill their shoes. If you like Impact!, try Verschuur's other books - "Hidden Attraction" and "The Invisible Universe Revealed." They're great!

I picked up this book on a whim, and found myself fascinated by the science. Its about the threat of comets and asteroids and the potential of collision with earth. If you are concerned, you should be, especially if the projectile is large and lands in the sea- deadly Tsunamis and tidal waves could be the result....look what happened to the dinosaurs! LOL, actually, the threat of being hit by a much smaller rock is far greater, Earth is hit every year by many small objects which most people never see or are noticed, (except by science-types).

This book covers historical, ancient, and modern perspective towards the stellar apparitions. While parts are a little dry, it's a good read for science geeks, or those interested in learning about asteroids and meteors. I found the author's occasional witty commentary funny, and the historical notes fascinating. An excellent, read all-around. 4 stars.

The chance of Earth being struck by a large asteroid or comet is neither more nor less now than it has ever been. If nothing else, this book will bring out that fact. So for all the folks who want to believe in the magical or the preposterous, such as Nostradamus, Velikovsky, and other fantasy spinners, go elsewhere

If, however, you are a person who accepts things scientific, this is your book. Professsor Verschuur is an excellent, lucid, organized writer who does not waste the reader's time with forays into the specculative or ludicrous. Instead he forthrightly presents the overview of, and the detail behind, the genuine, if remote, danger that human society will receive heavy damage, if not outright destruction, from a large impact event. He accurately points out that the remoteness of this eventuality is offset by the magnitude of destruction that will occur if a large impact happens.

I have studied impact phenomena for some years, and this book is the most-fact-filled, well organized book of its genre. It is not only an excellent starting volume for a study of this branch of science, but is a good wake-up call for organizing attempts to meet the danger. The Professor does not patronize his reader, but neither does he presume a level of knowledge beyond the ken of the average well-informed adult.

I recommend the book very highly and would urge anyone interested in this topic to make it a priority purchase. It is the book by which all similar texts should be measured.

This author has stolen the foundational idea of this book from the great scientist Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky who wrote the best seller "Worlds in Collision" in 1950. Then this author, Verschuur, trashes Velikovsky. Verschuur states hackneyed cliches about Velikovsky that were part of the most disgusting scientific blackballing in history. Verschuur does not address all of the overwhelming evidence that NASA has devoped over the last 40 years which were all anticipated by Velikovsky. What about the 900 degree surface temperature of Venus, or radio signals from Jupiter, or thick dust on the moon (remember the footprints of our astronauts?), or the scores of other discoveries all of which Velikovsky clearly anticipated and Verschuur ignores while promoting his own daffy theory. As an objective writer, Verschuur is a failure, and as an observer of alternative science he is lame.