Fire in the Sky

March 25, 2019
Journalist Dillow (Where the Money Is) packs quite a punch with this volume about humanity’s expanding understanding of the threat posed by objects from space. He reveals Gene Shoemaker, who became an asteroid hunter in the 1950s when he noticed the resemblance between Arizona’s mile-long Meteor Crater and nuclear bomb test craters, as a key figure in shaping this understanding. Two others are father-son team Luis and Walter Alvarez, for their 1980 theory that a meteorite was largely responsible for wiping out the dinosaurs. Dillow identifies an additional touchstone for asteroid hunting in 1993, when Shoemaker’s wife Carolyn and assistant David Levy discovered the Shoemaker-Levy Comet 9 that, by spectacularly colliding with Jupiter the following year, impelled the U.S. government to greatly increase funding for projects searching for dangerous Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). Dillow also touches on recent instances of asteroids intersecting with Earth, including one that burned up in the atmosphere above his Arizona home in 2016, and proposes “kinetic impactors,” rather than nuclear weapons, for defense against Earth-bound asteroids. Revealing the estimated chances of a disastrous strike over the next century to be low but not zero, this enjoyable survey should have appeal beyond pop science fans to the researchers and officials concerned with preparing for such a potentially calamitous event.

May 1, 2019
According to scientists, it's inevitable that a giant piece of space rock will eventually hurtle toward Earth: "So where do we currently stand in terms of planetary defense against Earth-impacting asteroids?" We've all seen the movies in which an asteroid is on a collision course with our planet and we have scant time to devise some way to destroy it or change its path. In this entertaining book, Dillow (co-author, with Charles Campisi: Blue on Blue: An Insider's Story of Good Cops Catching Bad Cops, 2017, etc.), a veteran reporter and war correspondent, investigates how much truth there is to these narratives. In short, how much should we worry? Regarding the chance of an impact, he offers an alarming conclusion. "It's not a question of if," he writes. "It's only a question of when. And at this point, we can only hope that the world will be ready." Using his own research and numerous interviews with scientists and other experts, the author provides an elegant overview of the history of terrestrial collisions and breaks down what governments are doing to prepare for another--and whether that preparation is good enough. From asteroid hunters to planetary defense officers, a cadre of specialists are working to identify threats and devise realistic plans to neutralize them. Dillow explains the science behind these efforts in plain language and, despite the sometimes-weighty subject matter, good humor. He also engagingly describes his awe in considering Earth from a new perspective, that of a vulnerable, smallish planet flying through a crowded solar system. One medium-sized asteroid (never mind a comet) slamming into Earth could easily destroy a city, a country, or even most of mankind. After all, it's generally accepted that a 6-mile-wide asteroid wiped out almost every living thing on the planet 65 million years ago, including dinosaurs. Dillow threads a lovely history of asteroid impacts into an urgent call to arms, and the result is a thrilling read.

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May 1, 2019
Chicken Little was right. The sky is falling. In an accessible and always entertaining narrative, Dillow shares the somewhat alarming news that objects from outer space collide with Earth's atmosphere on a regular basis?like, every day. In addition to sharing stories about past theories, assumptions, and notable eccentrics, Dillow uncovers geological and astronomical revelations from the past 50 years that have changed scientific thought about asteroids and other chunks of metal that threaten and sometimes collide with our planet, occasionally wreaking havoc. The author's background as a journalist is evident; he describes unimaginable catastrophes with such detail that readers feel like eyewitnesses, and he reimagines vast expanses of space as easily digestible scenarios. There's lots of information about asteroids: mining operations, weird names, odd shapes (dumbbells, dog-bone chew toys, high-heel shoes), asteroid hunters, warning systems, and our probably ineffective protection plans. Ending Chapter Notes, Sources, and Relevant Fun Facts provide additional droll anecdotes and reinforce Dillow's compelling argument that we really should be paying more attention to the heavens.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)