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How to Kill an Asteroid

The Real Science of Planetary Defense

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How to Kill an Asteroid

By: Robin George Andrews
Narrated by: Graham Mack
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About this listen

A gripping account of the "city-killer" asteroids that could threaten Earth and the race to build a planetary defense system.

There are approximately 25,000 "city killer" asteroids in near-Earth orbit—and most are yet to be found. Small enough to evade detection, they are capable of large-scale destruction, and represent our greatest cosmic threat. But in September 2022, against all odds, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission deliberately crashed a spacecraft into a carefully selected city killer, altering the asteroid's orbit and proving that we stand a chance against them.

In How to Kill an Asteroid, award-winning science journalist Robin George Andrews—who was at DART mission control when it—reveals the development of the technology that made it possible, from spotting elusive asteroids and comets to figuring out their geologic defenses and orchestrating a deflection campaign. In a propulsive narrative that plays like a sci-fi thriller, Andrews tells the story of the planetary defense movement, and introduces the international team of scientists and engineers now working to protect Earth.

©2024 Robin George Andrews (P)2024 Tantor Aeronautics & Astronautics Astronomy & Space Science Physics Science Interstellar
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This is a fantastic popular science book that propels you through the exciting story of NASA’s DART mission, like an Ocean’s 11 of planetary defence. It also gives you what you want to know about the asteroid that befell the dinosaurs and what those moves like Armageddon got right or wrong. It’s really informative and it’s got great momentum. I also laughed out loud more than once! The narration is great and brings the experts being interviewed to life. If you’re interested in space missions, colliding space rocks, amazing scientists, then I would highly recommend it!

Exciting, gripping, humorous and informative!

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Story is interesting enough, surface level science reporting with some cringy jokes. The voice actor is absolutely dismal though. He insists on imitating a variety of international accents which I doubt he has ever heard before. And worse, half of them are in a painful falsetto to indicate a female speaker. Also distracting that the voice actor is clearly an older man while the author repeatedly emphasises that he was born in 1987. Can’t recommend

Narrator ruined it

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