Death from the Skies! (43 page)

Most of the Universe is lethal, but our little section of it is pretty cozy. The cosmos takes away, but it also provides. So go outside, enjoy a sunny day or a star-filled night. There is danger to avoid, but also beauty to behold, and you understand a little bit more about that sky now.

And understanding is always good.

A book that deals with everything from asteroid impacts to the quantum decay of the Universe is something of a big task, and not one to be undertaken either lightly or alone. If you took everyone I need to thank and put them in a room together, they would collapse into their own event horizon.

But let’s allow a little quantum Hawking radiation to escape, and see who pops up.

First, thanks go to my agent and to my editor, Loretta Barrett and Alessandra Lusardi. Loretta is a good person to have on your side in negotiations, and when the dust settled Alessandra did a fine job encouraging me when I suddenly realized I was actually going to have to write a book. Also my thanks to the folks at the Boulder Conference on World Affairs; it was because of that fine event that I met Loretta. I liked it so much I moved to Boulder.

I have a decent grasp of astronomy, but not anywhere near the level needed to cover the ground of this book. So I want to toss rose petals at the feet of the scientists who helped, tore apart, edited, dissected, examined, corrected, folded, spun, mutilated, and finally tech-edited what I wrote. They include Dan Durda, Ed Lu, Rusty Schweickart, Al Harris, Craig DeForest, Barbara Thompson, Caspar Ammann, Christopher Balch, Neil Gehrels (who was running an entire NASA mission during the time he took to help me!), Andrew Hamilton, Seth Shostak, Harriet Hall, Rich Pogge, Michelle Thaller, and Fred Adams. Any mistakes in this book are no doubt due to my own transcription issues after hours on the phone with all these fine folks.

My appreciation also to the people who personally gave me artwork for the book: Dan Durda, Dana Berry (his stuff is
amazing
), David Hardy, Chris Setter, and Aurore Simonnet.

To my friends, my co-workers (especially Sarah Silva), and my boss, Lynn Cominsky, who put up with me during this turbulent ride: thanks. A very special head bob to Fraser Cain of
UniverseToday.com
, who helped immensely and gave me tons of good ideas to help support the book online.

Thanks go to the BABloggees and other minions who tolerated fewer blog posts for months while I scratched this thing out.

My family: again, you’ve been great during this ridiculous time. For my mom especially, who has encouraged me constantly, and very much for my dad, who would have loved to read this book.

And, as usual, I owe everything to Marcella and Zoe. I don’t believe in the supernatural of any kind, but if there is some sort of imprint, any echo of personality that embeds itself in our matter, then my love for both of you will endure for about 10
⁴⁰
years. It would take me that long to express what it means to me anyway.

Page numbers in
italics
refer to illustrations.

 

accretion disks

acid rain

active galaxies

Adams, Fred

air:

compression of

heating molecules of

alanine

ALHmeteorite

alien attack:

listening for

possibility of

and SETI

war and technology

what if?

Alpha Centauri

Ames Research Center, California (NASA)

amino acids

Ammann, Caspar

Andromeda galaxy

black hole in

collision with Milky Way

headed toward Milky Way

in Local Group

shape of

velocity of

what if?

Antarctica, meteorite found in

Antenna galaxies

antimatter

Arizona, Meteor Crater in

asteroid belt

asteroids:

attempts to explode

attempts to ram

changes in trajectories of

controlling the orbits of

cratering of

asteroids (
cont.
)

density of

destroying

dinosaurs killed by

discovery of

falling toward Earth

impact on Earth

impact on Moon

iridium in

main belt of

mass of

moving planets with

Near Earth Objects

Apophis

orbits of

origin of

possibility of impact

Potentially Hazardous Objects

rocket landings on

search for

as term

Mathilde

what if?

astrology

astronomy

atoms:

creation of

energy states of

ionized

nuclei of

atom smashers

aurora australis

aurora borealis

 

BFoundation

bacteria

alien

beneficial

interplanetary

symbiotic relationship with humans

bacteriophages

Barnard

BeppoSAX satellite

Big Bang

alternatives to

confirmation of

events following

use of term

what came before

Big Rip

binary systems

Black Hole Era

black holes

and accretion disks

approaching the solar system

bending light

bending space

Cygnus

definition of

and escape velocity

evaporation of

event horizons of

feeding

formation of

friction in

of galaxies

and gamma-ray bursts

and gravity

of M

and mass

possibility of

primordial

quantum

and shock waves

singularity of

sizes of

and spaghettification

spherical

stellar mass

supermassive (SMBH)

temperatures of

and tidal forces

and waterfall analogy

what if?

blazars

Bok globules

bombardier beetle

branes

brown dwarfs

 

calcium

Canada, power outage in

cancer

capsid

carbon

carbon dioxide

Carrington, Richard

Ceres

Chicxulub crater, Mexico

chlorine

climate change

clouds:

collisions of

formation of

molecular

cold war

comets

Hale-Bopp

impact on Earth

and Mars

nuclei of

organic compounds in

as wild cards

compass, magnetic needle of

Compton Gamma Ray Observatory satellite

conic section

convection

coronagraphs

coronal mass ejection (CME)

Cosmic Epochs

cosmic expansion

cosmic rays (CRs)

galactic

and gamma-ray bursts

intergalactic

and muons

Cox, T. J.

Crab Nebula

Cretaceous period

Cuba, Soviet missiles in

current, electrical

Cygnus

Cygnus

 

Dark Era

dark matter

dark nebulae

“daughter” elements

degeneracy

Degenerate Era

Deinococcus radiodurans
bacterium

dinosaurs

dissociating

DNA:

damage to

and muons

of viruses

Drake, Frank

Drake Equation

Durda, Dan

dynamo

 

Earth:

age of

aging of

asteroids falling toward

atmosphere of

climate change on

cloud coverage of

death of

early conditions on

effects of cosmic rays on

effects of molecular clouds on

extinction events on

horizon of

impact of asteroids on

impact of comets on

and jet stream

life on

magnetic field of

meteoroids falling to

Moon in orbit around

Moon’s tidal force on

moving farther from Sun

orbit of

repopulation of

source of heat for

and Sun as red giant

and Sun’s expansion

temperatures on

Ebola virus

Einstein, Albert:

on cosmic expansion

and
E = mc

on gravity

on relativity

on space and time

on speed of light

ekpyrotic universe

electricity

electromagnetic pulse of energy (EMP)

electromagnetic radiation

electromagnetic spectrum

electrons

end of everything

beginning of

deep time in

what if?

energy:

conversion to heat

creation of

E = mc
equation

electromagnetic pulse (EMP) of

in magnetic field lines

from meteoroid explosions

in nuclear fusion

in quantum mechanics

Sun’s emissions of

energy state

escape velocity

Escherichia coli
(
E. coli
) bacterium

Eskimo Nebula

Eta Carinae

Eureka
(Poe)

Europa

event horizon

evolution

exponential notation

extinction events

extremophiles

 

faculae

Fermi, Enrico

fission

food chain, disruption of

food poisoning

“forever,” meaning of

fragmentation

future:

extrapolation of

table of possibilities

 

galactic cosmic rays

galaxies:

active

aging of

Andromeda

Antenna

black holes of

collisions of

doom, possibility of

dust of

energy reservoirs of

formation of

gas clouds in orbit

gravity in

light emitted by

magnetic fields of

Milky Way,
see
Milky Way Galaxy

NGC

regions of

shapes of

SMBHs of

spiral arms of

stars formed in;
see also
stars

tidal streams of

in Virgo Cluster

what if?

Galileo Galilei

gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)

beaming

birth of

and black holes

directional information sought for

distribution in space

effects from

and hypernovae

luminosity of

in the past

possibility of

rarity of