Abstract
Carl Sagan admitted, “On first hearing about the Asteroid Hazard, many people think of it as a kind of Chicken Little fable.”1 That they do, but Chicken Little, he of “the sky is falling!” fame, never got the Hollywood treatment in the way that the “asteroid hazard” has. The falling sky sells a planet’s worth of DVDs.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, p. 323.
Clark R. Chapman, “The Asteroid/Comet Impact Hazard: Homo Sapiens as Dinosaur?” in Prediction: Science, Decision Making, and the Future of Nature, edited by Daniel Sarewitz, Roger A. Pielke Jr., and Rayford Byerly Jr. (Covelo, CA: Island Press, 2000), p. 111.
Martin Gardner, “Near-Earth Objects: Monsters of Doom?” Skeptical Inquirer (July/August 1998), p. 16.
Chapman, “The Asteroid/Comet Impact Hazard: Homo Sapiens as Dinosaur?” p. 110.
Bonnie Bilyeu Gordon, “That Asteroid Caper,” Astronomy (July 1998), p. 6.
Chapman, “The Asteroid/Comet Impact Hazard: Homo Sapiens as Dinosaur?” pp. 109, 113.
Gordon, “That Asteroid Caper,” p. 6.
Chapman, “The Asteroid/Comet Impact Hazard: Homo Sapiens as Dinosaur?” pp. 113, 126, 121.
Philip Plait, Death from the Skies! (New York: Viking, 2008), pp. 4, 9.
Robert S. Boyd, “Scientists Seek Ways to Ward Off Killer Asteroids,” McClatchy Newspapers, December 17, 2008.
Luis W. Alvarez, Walter Alvarez, Frank Asaro, and Helen V. Michel, “Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction,” Science, Vol. 208, No. 4448 (June 6, 1980), pp. 1095, 1106.
Ibid., p. 1095.
Plait, Death from the Skies!, p. 16.
Alvarez et al., “Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction,” p. 1105.
Peter M. Sheehan and Dale A. Russell, “Faunal Change Following the Cretaceous-Tertiary Impact: Using Paleontological Data to Assess the Hazards of Impacts,” in Hazards Due to Comets & Asteroids, edited by Tom Gehrels (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994), p. 881.
Dennis V. Kent, “Asteroid Extinction Hypothesis,” Science, Vol. 211, No. 4483 (February 13, 1981), p. 649.
Ibid., p. 650.
Richard A. Kerr, “Periodic Extinctions and Impacts Challenged,” Science, Vol. 227, No. 4693 (March 22, 1985), pp. 1451–53.
Alvarez et al., “Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction,” p. 1107.
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion” in Tales of Mystery and Imagination (New York: Brentano’s, 1928), p. 163.
Ibid., p. 166.
H.G. Wells, In the Days of the Comet (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001/1906), pp. 162, 169.
Gardner, “Near-Earth Objects: Monsters of Doom?” p. 17.
Marc Davis, Piet Hut, and Richard A. Muller, “Extinction of Species by Periodic Comet Showers,” Nature, Vol. 308 (April 19, 1984), p. 717.
Ibid., p. 715.
Duncan Steel, Target Earth (Pleasantville, NY: Reader’s Digest, 2000), pp. 25, 28.
“Impact History,” http://www.b612foundation.org.
Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, pp. 313–14.
Charles Q. Choi, “Could Earth Be Hit, Like Jupiter Just Was?” SPACE.com, July 28, 2009.
James V. Scotti, “On Comets,” The Scientific American Book of the Cosmos, edited by David H. Levy (New York: St. Martin’s, 2000), p. 185.
Sharon Begley, “The Science of Doom,” Newsweek (November 23, 1992).
Gregg Easterbrook, “The Sky Is Falling,” The Atlantic (June 2008), p. 76.
Sandra Blakeslee, “Ancient Crash, Epic Wave,” New York Times, November 14, 2006.
Easterbrook, “The Sky Is Falling,” pp. 76–80.
“Space Rock Gives Earth a Close Shave,” AFP, March 3, 2009, http://www.breitbart.com.
Robert S. Boyd, “Scientists Seek Ways to Ward Off Killer Asteroids.”
“B612 Foundation Statement Regarding NASA’s Analysis of Asteroid 99942 Apophis Impact Potential,” http//www.b612foundation.org.
“Near Earth Object Program,” http//neo.jpl.nasa.gov/torino_scale.html.
Quoted in Easterbrook, “The Sky Is Falling”, p. 80.
Ibid., pp. 82–83.
Easterbrook, “The Sky Is Falling,” p. 84.
Gregory H. Canavan, Johndale C. Solem, and John D.G. Rather, “Near-Earth Object Interception Workshop,” in Hazards Due to Comets & Asteroids, p. 93.
Thomas J. Ahrens and Alan W. Harris, “Deflection and Fragmentation of Near-Earth Asteroids,” Nature, Vol. 360 (December 3, 1992), pp. 430–32.
Clark R. Chapman, Daniel D. Durda, and Robert E. Gold, “The Comet/Asteroid Impact Hazard: A Systems Approach,” (San Antonio, TX: Southwest Research Institute, February 24, 2001), p. 13.
Ahrens and Harris, “Deflection and Fragmentation of Near-Earth Asteroids,” p. 433.
A.V. Bushman, A.M. Vickery, V.E. Fortov, B.P. Krukov, I.V. Lomonosov, S.A. Medin, A.L. Ni, A.V. Shutov, and O.Yu. Vorobiev, “Computer Simulation of Hypervelocity Impact and Asteroid Explosion,” in Hazards Due to Comets & Asteroids, p. 718.
Ahrens and Harris, “Deflection and Fragmentation of Near-Earth Asteroids,” pp. 430, 433.
Quoted in Leonard David, “Assessing the Threat from Comets and Asteroids,” Aerospace America (August 1996).
V.A. Simonenko, V.N. Nogin, D.V. Petrov, O.N. Shubin, and Johndale C. Solem, “Defending the Earth Against Impacts from Large Comets and Asteroids,” in Hazards Due to Comets & Asteroids, p. 930.
Ibid., p. 951.
Joseph G. Gurley, William J. Dixon, and Hans F. Meissinger, “Vehicle Systems for Missions to Protect the Earth Against NEO Impacts,” in Hazards Due to Comets & Asteroids, p. 1035.
Alan W. Harris, Gregory H. Canavan, Carl Sagan, and Steven J. Ostro, “The Deflection Dilemma: Use Versus Misuse of Technologies for Avoiding Interplanetary Collision Hazards,” in Hazards Due to Comets & Asteroids, p. 1145.
P.R. Weissman, “The Comet and Asteroid Impact Hazard in Perspective,” in Hazards Due to Comets & Asteroids, p. 1191.
Ibid., p. 1196.
Robert L. Park, Lori B. Garver, and Terry Dawson, “The Lesson of Grand Forks: Can a Defense Against Asteroids be Sustained?” in Hazards Due to Comets & Asteroids, pp. 1226–27.
Chapman, Durda, and Gold, “The Comet/Asteroid Impact Hazard: A Systems Approach,” p. 16.
Owen B. Toon, Kevin Zahnle, David Morrison, Richard P. Turco, and Curt Covey, “Environmental Perturbations Caused by the Impacts of Asteroids and Comets,” Reviews of Geophysics, Vol. 35, No. 1 (February 1997), p. 75.
Ibid., pp. 61, 41.
Sheehan and Russell, “Faunal Change Following the Cretaceous-Tertiary Impact: Using Paleontological Data to Assess the Hazards of Impacts,” in Hazards Due to Comets & Asteroids, p. 890.
Toon, Zahnle, et al., “Environmental Perturbations Caused by the Impacts of Asteroids and Comets,” p. 44.
Neal S. Young, John P.A. Ioannidis, and Omar Al-Ubaydli, “Why Current Publication Practices May Distort Science,” PLoS Medicine, Vol. 5, Issue 10 (June 2008), p. 1418.
“Publish and Be Wrong,” The Economist (October 11, 2008), p. 109.
Young, Ioannidis, and Al-Ubaydli, “Why Current Publication Practices May Distort Science,” pp. 1418–21.
Michael B. Gerrard, “Risks of Hazardous Waste Sites versus Asteroid and Comet Impacts: Accounting for the Discrepancies in U.S. Resource Allocation,” Risk Analysis, Vol. 20, No. 6 (2000): 899.
Ibid., pp. 901–902.
Ibid., p. 903.
S. Nozette, L. Pleasance, D. Barnhart, and D. Dunham, “DoD Technologies and Missions of Relevance to Asteroid and Comet Exploration,” in Hazards Due to Comets & Asteroids, p. 671.
Quoted in Chris Ferenzi, “Mars or Bust,” February 4, 2004, http://redcolony.com.
David, “Assessing the Threat from Comets and Asteroids.”
Steel, Target Earth, p. 155.
Ibid., pp. 127, 135.
Ibid., p. 71.
Ibid., pp. 6–7.
Ibid., pp. 8.
Ibid., pp. 128, 130.
Ibid., pp. 20, 152–53.
Choi, “Could Earth Be Hit, Like Jupiter Just Was?”
Chapman, Durda, and Gold, “The Comet/Asteroid Impact Hazard: A Systems Approach,” pp. 1–3.
Ibid., pp. 10–11.
Clark R. Chapman, “How a Near-Earth Object Impact Might Affect Society,” Global Science Forum (January 2003): n.p.
David Morrison, Clark R. Chapman, and Paul Slovic, “The Impact Hazard,” in Hazards Due to Comets & Asteroids, p. 81.
Ibid., pp. 82–84.
Ibid., p. 87.
Weissman, “The Impact Hazard in Perspective,” p. 1203.
Ibid., pp. 1208–1209.
William K. Hartmann and Andrei Sokolov, “Evaluating Space Resources in the Context of Earth Impact Hazards: Asteroid Threat or Asteroid Opportunity?” in Hazards Due to Comets & Asteroids, p. 1213.
Ibid., pp. 1218, 1223.
Andrew F. Cheng, J. Veverka, C. Pilcher, and Robert W. Farquhar, “Missions to Near-Earth Objects,” in Hazards Due to Comets & Asteroids, p. 651.
T.D. Jones, D.B. Eppler, D.R. Davis, A.L. Friedlander, J. McAdams, and S. Krikalev, “Human Exploration of Near-Earth Asteroids,” in Hazards Due to Comets & Asteroids, p. 687.
John Mueller, Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them (New York: Free Press, 2006), p. 25.
Ibid., p. 37.
Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, p. 306.
McDougall, “Technocracy and Statecraft in the Space Age — Toward the History of a Saltation,” p. 1035.
Begley, “The Science of Doom.”
Sally Stephens, “Cosmic Collisions,” Astronomical Society of the Pacific (Spring 1993), http://www.astrosociety.org.
Begley, “The Science of Doom.”
David, “Assessing the Threat from Comets and Asteroids.”
“Watching and Waiting,” The Economist (December 4, 2008).
“Near-Earth Object Survey and Deflection: An Analysis of Alternatives,” March 2007, http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov.
“Testimony of Russell L. Schweickart Before the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Technology,” October 11, 2007, p. 13, http://www.b612foundation.org.
Ronald Bailey, “Earth Killers from Outer Space,” Reason, January 26, 2005, http://www.reason.com.
D. Steel, “Project Spaceguard: Will Humankind Go the Way of the Dinosaurs?” Irish Astronomical Journal, Vol. 24, No. 1 (1997), p. 19.
Ibid., p. 26.
Ibid., p. 19.
Ibid., p. 29.
For more on Pan-STARRS, see http://pan-starrs.ifa.hawaii.edu.
Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, p. 263.
Ibid., p. 264.
Deudney, “Forging Missiles into Spaceships,” p. 295.
“Initial National Response Plan,” U.S. Department of Homeland Security, September 30, 2003, p. 2.
Evan R. Seamone, “The Precautionary Principle as the Law of Planetary Defense: Achieving the Mandate to Defend the Earth Against Asteroid and Comet Impacts While There Is Still Time,” Georgetown International Environmental Law Review (Fall 2004), n.p.
Begley, “The Science of Doom.”
David Morrison and Edward Teller, “The Impact Hazard: Issues for the Future,” in Hazards Due to Comets & Asteroids, pp. 1135, 1137.
Victoria Garshnek, David Morrison, and Frederick M. Burkle Jr., “The Mitigation, Management, and Survivability of Asteroid/Comet Impact with Earth,” Space Policy, Vol. 16 (2000), pp. 213–14.
Ibid., p. 216.
Ibid., p. 217.
Ibid., p. 215.
Ibid., p. 221.
David Whitehouse, “Earth Almost Put on Impact Alert,” BBC News, March 24, 2004, http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk.
Easterbrook, “The Sky Is Falling,” p. 82.
Begley, “The Science of Doom.”
David, “Assessing the Threat from Comets and Asteroids.”
Chapman, “How a Near-Earth Object Impact Might Affect Society.”
Toon et al., “Environmental Perturbations Caused by the Impacts of Asteroids and Comets,” p. 41.
Jeremy Hsu, “Scientists Speculate on Earth’s Last Day,” Space.com, August 3, 2009, http://news.aol.com.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bennett, J.T. (2010). The Chicken Littles of Big Science; or, Here Come the Killer Asteroids!. In: The Doomsday Lobby. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6685-8_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6685-8_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-6684-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-6685-8
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)