{"product_id":"cosmic-impact-understanding-the-threat-to-earth-from-asteroids-and-comets","title":"Cosmic Impact","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAs end-of-the-world scenarios go, an apocalyptic collision with an\u003cbr\u003easteroid or comet is the new kid on the block, gaining respectability only in\u003cbr\u003ethe last decade of the 20th century with the realisation that the dinosaurs had\u003cbr\u003ebeen wiped out by just such an impact. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow the science community is making up for lost time, with\u003cbr\u003eworldwide efforts to track the thousands of potentially hazardous near-Earth\u003cbr\u003eobjects, and plans for high-tech hardware that could deflect an incoming object\u003cbr\u003efrom a collision course - a procedure depicted, with little regard for\u003cbr\u003escientific accuracy, in several Hollywood movies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAstrophysicist and science writer Andrew May disentangles\u003cbr\u003efact from fiction in this fast-moving and entertaining account, covering the\u003cbr\u003enature and history of comets and asteroids, the reason why some orbits are more\u003cbr\u003ehazardous than others, the devastating local and global effects that an impact\u003cbr\u003eevent would produce, and - more optimistically - the way future space missions\u003cbr\u003ecould avert a catastrophe.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Icon Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54022349685080,"sku":null,"price":15.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781785784934.jpg?v=1764305132","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/cosmic-impact-understanding-the-threat-to-earth-from-asteroids-and-comets","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}