Fire In The Sky: Cosmic Collisions, Killer Asteroids, And The Race To Defend Earth

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Synopsis

This “accessible and always entertaining” (Booklist) combination of history, pop science, and in-depth reporting offers a fascinating account of the asteroids that hit Earth long ago and those streaming toward us now, as well as how prepared we are against asteroid-caused catastrophe.

One of these days, warns Gordon Dillow, the Earth will be hit by a comet or asteroid of potentially catastrophic size. The only question is when. In the meantime, we need to get much better at finding objects hurtling our way, and if they’re large enough to penetrate the atmosphere without burning up, figure out what to do about them.

We owe many of science’s most important discoveries to the famed Meteor Crater, a mile-wide dimple on the Colorado Plateau created by an asteroid hit 50,000 years ago. In his masterfully researched Fire in the Sky, Dillow unpacks what the Crater has to tell us. Prior to the early 1900s, the world believed that all craters—on the Earth and Moon—were formed by volcanic activity. Not so. The revelation that Meteor Crater and others like it were formed by impacts with space objects has led to a now accepted theory about what killed off the dinosaurs, and it has opened up a new field of asteroid observation that is brimming with urgency. Dillow looks at great asteroid hits of the past and modern-day asteroid hunters and defense planning experts, including America’s first Planetary Defense Officer.

Satellite sensors confirm that a Hiroshima-scale blast occurs in the atmosphere every year, and a smaller, one-kiloton blast every month. While Dillow makes clear that the objects above can be deadly, he consistently inspires awe with his descriptions of their size, makeup, and origins. Both a riveting work of popular science and a warning to not take for granted the space objects hurtling overhead, Fire in the Sky is, ultimately, a testament to our universe’s celestial wonders.

Chapters

  • 001 FireInTheSky Open

    Duration: 18s
  • 002 FireInTheSky Introduction

    Duration: 12min
  • 003 FireInTheSky Ch1

    Duration: 33min
  • 004 FireInTheSky Ch2

    Duration: 50min
  • 005 FireInTheSky Ch3

    Duration: 01h04min
  • 006 FireInTheSky Ch4

    Duration: 01h02min
  • 007 FireInTheSky Ch5

    Duration: 01h16min
  • 008 FireInTheSky Ch6

    Duration: 49min
  • 009 FireInTheSky Ch7

    Duration: 31min
  • 010 FireInTheSky Ch8

    Duration: 50min
  • 011 FireInTheSky Ch9

    Duration: 56min
  • 012 FireInTheSky Epilogue

    Duration: 10min
  • 013 FireInTheSky Credits

    Duration: 35s