Major Works Consulted

Patricia Barnes-Svarney, Asteroid: Earth Destroyer or New Frontier?

New York: Plenum, 1996. An excellent overview of the potential of asteroids to strike Earth, causing catastrophes, and to be exploited by humanity for their valuable metals and other resources.

J. Kelly Beatty et al., The New Solar System. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1999. One of the best available general guides to ongoing knowledge and discoveries in planetary science, including valuable information about asteroids and comets.

John K. Davies, Beyond Pluto: Exploring the Outer Limits of the Solar System. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2001. An absorbing study of present information and theories regarding the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud and other aspects of the outer solar system.

William K. Hartmann, Moons and Planets. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks Cole, 1998. Very well-written and useful general overview of the solar system, including some detailed information about comets, asteroids, and meteors.

David H. Levy, Comets: Creators and Destroyers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998. As Levy explains in this well-informed volume, comets probably brought much of Earth's carbon and water, both of which are essential for the generation of life.

John S. Lewis, Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets. Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 1997. Excellent, thought-provoking overview of humans mining the solar system in the twenty-first century and beyond. Highly recommended.

——, Rain of Iron and Ice: The Very Real Threat of Comet and Asteroid Bombardment. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1996.

Another fine volume by Lewis, this one focuses on the threat posed by asteroids and comets striking Earth.

Curtis Peebles, Asteroids: A History. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2000. Peebles, a noted aerospace historian, delivers a fascinating overview of how human beings discovered and learned about asteroids.

James L. Powell, Night Comes to the Cretaceous: Comets, Craters, Controversy, and the Last Days of the Dinosaurs. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1998. The most comprehensive summary of the debate about dinosaur extinction. Powell presents the evidence gathered so far showing that an asteroid or comet impacted Earth 65 million years ago, causing a major mass extinction. Highly recommended.

Alan E. Rubin, Disturbing the Solar System: Impacts, Close Encounters, and Coming Attractions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002. An eclectic but highly informative book about the known celestial objects, as well as the mysteries of outer space.

Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, Comet. 1985. Reprint: New York: Random House, 1997. A massive, very informative study of the folklore, discovery, origins, composition, orbits, and potential dangers of comets. Highly recommended.

William Sheehan, Worlds in the Sky: Planetary Discovery from the Earliest Times Through Voyager and Magellan. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1992. The author provides detailed information about how human beings discovered or came to understand the workings of asteroids, comets, and other cosmic bodies.

Gerrit L. Verschuur, Impact: The Threat of Comets and Asteroids. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. A well-researched and well-written examination of the real threat of extraterrestrial bombardment of Earth.

David K. Yeomans, Comets: A Chronological History of Observation, Science, Myth, and Folklore. New York: John Wiley, 1991. Explains why people used to fear comets and how science showed that these celestial objects are remnants of the formation of the solar system.