During its five-billion-year history, Earth has been hit countless times by asteroids and meteorites. Over 150 crater-producing events have been identified, and this 1994 book describes all 139 sites worldwide at which evidence of the impacts can be seen. They range in age from recent craters formed this century to the highly eroded billion-year-old ancient craters. Some are spectacular to visit, such as the Barringer Crater in Arizona, the ring-shaped mountains of Gosses Bluff, Australia, and the huge crater at Ries in Germany. For each site there is a summary table giving location, size, age and present condition. Maps are included where necessary. The author has visited many of the sites and his photographs enrich this thorough survey. Meteorite craters are fascinating to visit, so the descriptions include guidance about access and suggested itineraries for the large structures.
Paul Hodge is an astronomer and author who has published 25 books, most on astronomy, but five on hiking and mountains. He is best known for his work on
the nature and contents of galaxies. His discoveries and analyses of nearby galaxies have provided new understanding of their histories and their origin. Using telescopes that have been among the largest in the world, he was the discover or co-discoverer and cataloger of more than 20, 000 objects in other galaxies, including ionized hydrogen clouds, star clusters, galaxies, dark nebulae and variable stars.
As a sideline Hodge did some pioneering research on the subject of interplanetary dust, carrying out his first experiments in the mid-1950's. While at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory he designed the first aircraft-borne meteoritic dust collector, which was flown on a U2 high-altitude airplane. In 2001 the asteroid 14466 was named "hodge" in his honor.
