Product Description
This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: J.B. Lippincott & co. in 1873 in 114 pages; Subjects: Meteors; Comets; Juvenile Nonfiction / Science & Nature / General; Juvenile Nonfiction / Science & Nature / Astronomy; Science / General; Science / Astronomy; Science / Astrophysics & Space Science; ... Read more

Product Description
Ever need a fact or quotation relating to comets and meteors? Designed for speechwriters, journalists, writers, researchers, students, professors, teachers, historians, academics, scrapbookers, trivia buffs and word lovers, this book represents the largest compilation of anything relating to "comets and meteors," with a linguistic emphasis on non-conventional usage and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities. The entries cover all parts of speech (noun, verb, adverb or adjective usage) as well as use in modern slang, pop culture, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in many unexpected examples for comets and meteors, since the editorial decision to include or exclude terms is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. Proceeds from this book are used to expand the content and coverage of Webster's Online Dictionary (www.websters-online-dictionary.org). ... Read more

Product Description
This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: Society for promoting Christian knowledge in 1920 in 221 pages; Subjects: Solar system; Astronomy; Juvenile Nonfiction / Science & Nature / Astronomy; Nature / Star Observation; Science / Astronomy; Science / Astrophysics & Space Science; Science / Cosmology; ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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As more asteroids enter our solar system, our chances of a collision increase by the day. This work examines the impact phenomenon describing the importance of "Deathrock" collisions in the Earth's history, the potential dangers and alleged cover-ups of near misses.Amazon.com Review
Over the past decade, the United States' nuclear-detectionsystem and spy satellites have registered 250 atomic-bomb-sizeddetonations on and about our planet. Why were we not told? Well, wewere, now and again, when someone felt like mentioning it, and whenthe world's media, starved of other news, could be bothered to run thestory. Why were these explosions not newsworthy? Because they come notfrom the arsenals of hostile states, but from comets and asteroidsimpacting with the Earth's atmosphere.

We assume these events arerare. They are not. Their time-averaged death toll equals that ofearthquakes and major floods. We assume these impacts rarely affectour lives. Author Austen Atkinson convincingly demonstrates thatmeteor and asteroid strikes have, and will again, skew human historyin spectacular and terrible ways.

Impacts from objects no biggerthan a baseball can, under the right conditions, wipe outcities. There is nothing we can do about them, as such objects are toosmall to be detected. On the other hand, bigger objects--the planetkillers of films like Deep Impact and Armageddon--can bedetected, and diverted, with existing technology but only if there isthe global will to act accordingly. Impact Earth is a call topolitical arms as well as a work of popular science. It isdeliberately sensationalist, and entirely serious. Atkinson, like manyof the distinguished observers and scientists he quotes, is attemptingto put cosmic debris strikes on the world political agenda. He isentitled to be loud. --Simon Ings, Amazon.co.uk ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Idiosyncratic but fascinating work
I can understand why Impact Earth triggers a powerful response - it's the sort of topic that polarises people's opinions. Either you are open minded or you reject the idea of asteroid and comet impact. I was a sceptic about the so called impact threat, but recent news articles pushed me to learn more. Austin Atkinson's book sets out to remind us that life is precious. A worthy goal. More than that it succeeds in offering a number of leading scientists a chance to voice their concerns and feelings about how the impact threat may be averted. That done, the author proceeds to paint a picture of how destructive an impact might be and uses the computer modelling carried out by the shock physics laboratory at Sandia National Laboratory (they who model the effects of nuclear war for the US government) to reinforce his point.

In the second half of the book Atkinson uses the facts he's outlined to create a fictional scenario - to allow readers to understand how it would feel to live through such an impact. It's very effective. I started out a sceptic, but Impact Earth changed my mind.

Cryptoscience at best.
There is something more than vaguely disconcerting about those who marshall armies of fact, then, having done so, proceed to put a highly speculative, "must be a conspiracy somewhere, somehow" twist on it all. This book would have been a lot better without Nostradamus, Genesis, and all that conspiracy glop.As it is, I wasted my money.Stick to the facts, and maybe, just maybe, someone will believe you.

Terrifyingly authentic popular science makes great impact
Author Austen Atkinson has revolutionised popular science with this book. He has taken the improbable-sounding possibility of a major meteoriteimpact and animated it in such a way as to make the reader seriouslyconsider the prospect and seriously ponder about how best to lobbygovernment to protect us. It is a book blessed with great wit, intelligenceand authority.

A chilling and captivating book
Impact Earth, Asteroids, Comets,and Meteoroids, The Growing Threat

Besides being a captivating subject I wasimpressed by the way Austen Atkinson researched the subject so thoroughly and gave a chillinglydetailed and logical treatment of the risk of Earth impacting with comets,asteroids and other bodies in space.

This book is a call to action on apar with Rachel Carlson's Silent Spring, in my opinion.Itshould berequired reading for every legislator, teacher and anyone under the age of30 with hopes of seeing middle and later life.Austen Atkinson didsomething very unique in Impact Earth. He added a second book to the end, afictional account of what it might be like toexperience a major impact.If the first book does not get attention, the second surely will. It adds ahuman element that is missing from other more technical books on thissubject. Both parts of Impact Earth are expertly done and written for thelay person in a manner that makes the impact risk clear and obvious toanyone able to read. Austen is a great writer.His style is easy readingand his development is extremely logical and captivating.This is onefor every middle school library and a great gift item for the skeptic onyour list.

Larry Robinson Sunflower Observatory Kansas ... Read more