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J. Brit. Astron. Assoc., 107, 5, 1997, p.288
Prometheus Books, 1997. ISBN 1-57392-066-5. Pp 338, £23.00 (hbk).
reviewed by Jonathan Shanklin
This book worries me. No, not the subject (more of that later) but the contents. The dust jacket tells us that the authors are a NASA lecturer and an aerospace engineer. The book shows that whilst they nearly grasp the physics of their subject, time and again they fail in the essential detail. To give but one example: '...comets will need to be watched very closely, since they have the ability to zig-zag towards us unexpectedly.' If one does, they suggest that the use of nuclear weapons is the way to remove or deflect such threatening objects. They seem to favour unrestrained expansion of the human race, with space the next western frontier and a place to get rich quick. In places the book verges on 1950s science fiction.
Earth-approaching asteroids are a danger, and one that we should be concerned about. An asteroid might not kill you, but in the long term it is a more likely end than being killed in an air crash. (If you're worried about air crashes, beware - when flying in an aircraft you are more likely to die of natural causes than falling out of the sky: worrying causes heart attacks!). Most scientists now accept catastrophism, particularly in respect of the KT boundary event(s). However the occasional globally catastrophic impact will be embedded in a background rain of smaller events which might be curtains for a county. These objects are the worry, and these we stand little chance of finding in time to do anything about.
At a recent meeting one lecturer commented that we needed a minor impact that would take out a country to make us believe that cosmic impacts present a real threat to mankind. He is probably correct, but reading this book, I cannot help feeling that there are bigger threats to the safety of our planet.