Asteroid Hunters by Carrie Nugent is a highly recommended quick look at asteroids. This is the published version of a TED talk that would be a good choice for anyone interested in learning more about asteroids, from as young as age 10 to adult. This book could be the foundational inspiration for future asteroid hunters/researchers.
Nugent provides her information about asteroids in accessible easy to comprehend language. She covers what they are and where they come from, but also the bigger question: what would happen if one hit the Earth? We know they have hit the Earth in the past and many adults remember Shoemaker Levy 9 hitting Jupiter. Elementary school children will know that a meteorite was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. I think most people who are interested in asteroids will remember the meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk in Russia on February 15, 2013. There were numerous videos available online and they can still be found today with a quick search. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpmXyJrs7iU)

Nugent discusses the different telescopes used to find asteroids, including the infrared NEOWISE, the project on which she is working. "The successful hunt and mapping of asteroids could mean nothing less than saving life on earth." Most asteroids live in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and stay in a stable orbit. Why scientists are busy identifying those asteroids, they are also looking at any whose orbit takes them close to Earth. By the end of 2011, scientists had found "over 90 percent of asteroids bigger than one kilometer across that get close to Earth" and since then even more have been found. Asteroid hunters are continually searching for even smaller, but still potentially destructive asteroids.

This is a short, easy to read and follow look at Nugent's job as an asteroid hunter. As someone who has spent more than one night watching the sky during meteor showers I guess the one drawback for me was the lack of real pictures in the book. You don't forget seeing a fireball or an especially active shower. There are illustrations, probably made for the TED talk, but it would be nice to see some real photographs. This is especially true of some big events that I recall being in awe over - Shoemaker Levy 9 hitting Jupiter and the Chelyabinsk, Russia meteor. 4.5 stars

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Simon & Schuster.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2017/03/asteroid-hunters.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1946501664

There were three main reasons I wanted to read this book. 1) Simple curiosity over what sort of work an asteroid hunter does 2) the fact that this is connected with the TedTalks series, and 3) my son is studying to be an astrophysicist and I'm curious about what sort of jobs he might be looking at in the not-too-distant future.

So, what is an asteroid hunter? It is someone who is studying and mapping space in our solar system and plotting the courses for all the large rocks (asteroids) that could pose a threat to the earth should they be on a collision course.

It's not a fast-paced action sort of job. It's a lot of slow, methodical work. And as Nugent points out, much of the population isn't too worried about an asteroid strike. When was the last one? The last devastating strike? But thanks to some 'near' misses recently, and some Hollywood doomsday flicks featuring asteroids as the evil killer, asteroid hunting has gotten a little more recognition.

It's probably pretty difficult to talk about something that requires a good commit of physics without getting too technical and I have to admit that there were times, even in this slim book, that the science got a little too technical for me, but Nugent does a fine job of keeping it simple for those of us who are pretty simple laymen.

A couple of things that I hadn't thought too much about before... those meteor showers that we enjoy watching (for me it's usually on those August nights) - those "streaks of light are caused by very small rocks; most are about as big as a grain of sand, some as large as a pea." And as Nugent adds: "It's pretty amazing when you think about ; you're actually able to see the flash from something as small as a grain of sand from over (60 miles) away." That is pretty incredible, and it does make you pause and consider what it might be like if that rock were even as big as a car.

One other thing that I picked up on (among other things) is that the telescopes used for asteroid hunting can vary. The type that Nugent herself works with sees the sky in infrared. Asteroids may be dark rock and would only reflect the light of the sun if at the correct angle or if the sun were not blocked by another object. But all objects are warmed by the sun to some degree, and an infrared telescope will see an object that a 'normal' magnifying telescope wouldn't.

It's amazing how many asteroids are already discovered and tracked and amazing how many more might actually be out there, but I do feel better knowing that there are people like Nugent keeping the planet safe from giant rocks.

Looking for a good book? <em>Asteroid Hunters</em>, by Carrie Nugent, is a brief but thorough examination of what some people do to track the space in our solar system to make sure there are no asteroid on an intercept course with the earth, and if there are, to give our leaders time to take action.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Talk about scary on another level. There's definitely a difference between something that's perceived as scary as opposed to something that's legitimately scary. This is just a load of the for real kind of scary. If you wanna get spooked on non-ficiton...pick this one up!!!