Impact Planet Earth: Weblinks
Death from above?
Do chances of being wiped out by asteroids hitting the Earth exist beyond Hollywood's imagination or is there risk in the skies?
Be your own expert
If we're about to be wiped out by space rock, make sure you can keep up with the science. Learn to talk the talk.
Have you heard, it's in the stars...
Are we doomed to be crushed to death in a collision with a rock from the skies? Is there an asteroid heading for impact - planet earth?
What do you know?
What's a shooting star? Where is the asteroid belt? Can you beat our quiz?
Find out more about the risks of asteroids with our weblinks and suggested reading
... about rogue bodies which may collide with planet Earth:
Impact! The Threat of Comets and Asteroids - Gerrit L Verschuur
Published by Oxford University Press
Rogue Asteroids and Doomsday Comets - Duncan Steel
Published by John Wiley and Sons
Comet and Asteroid Impact Hazards on a Populated Earth - John S. Lewis
Published by Academic Press Inc
... and about the theory that an asteroid killed the dinosaurs - by one of the scientists who came up with the theory:
T.Rex and the Crater of Doom - Walter Alvarez
Published by Princeton University Press
WEBSITES
In 2005, our Stardate programme reported as NASA collided a spacecraft with comet Tempel 1 to find out what it was made of. Find out more about this Deep Impact.
Type "asteroid impact" into any search engine, and you’ll see just how much popular interest there is in the question on whether we’re all going to get splattered by a giant rock hurling into our part of the solar system. But there are also many good scientific sites which provide more grounded information on meteors, asteroids, craters and the progress of programmes aiming to detect wandering dangers out there ...
For NASA’s own very comprehensive site, including details of their Near Earth Object search programmes:
NASA
The human story behind discovering and identifying the Arizona crater
For a list of links to other organisations and sources of information:
Meteors Meteorites and Impacts
AND IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ...
Studying science with the OU
Content last updated: 07/03/2005
