Earth-shattering : violent supernovas, galactic explosions, biological mayhem, nuclear meltdowns, and other hazards to life in our universe

Author

Bob Berman

Call Number

• 523.18 B5161 (OSH)

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Edition

First edition.

Publication Information

New York, NY : Little, Brown and Company, 2019.

Physical Description

xii, 307 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Summary

"The overwhelming majority of celestial space is inactive and will remain forever unruffled. Similarly, more than 90 percent of the universe's 70 billion trillion suns had non-attention-getting births and are burning through their nuclear fuel in steady, predictable fashion. But when cosmic violence does unfold, it changes the very fabric of the universe, with mega-explosions and ripple effects that reach the near limits of human comprehension. From colliding galaxies to solar storms, and gamma ray bursts to space-and-time-warping upheavals, these moments are rare yet powerful, often unseen but consequentially felt. Likewise, here on Earth, existence as we know it is fragile, always vulnerable to hazards both natural and manufactured. As we've learned from textbooks and witnessed in Hollywood blockbusters, existential threats such as biological disasters, asteroid impacts, and climate upheavals have the all-too-real power to instantaneously transform our routine-centered lives into total chaos, or much worse. While we might be helpless to stop these catastrophes--whether they originate on our own planet or in the farthest reaches of space--the science behind such cataclysmic forces is as fascinating as their results can be devastating. In Earth-Shattering, astronomy writer Bob Berman guides us through an epic, all-inclusive investigation into these instances of violence both mammoth and microscopic. From the sudden creation of dazzling "new stars" to the furiously explosive birth of our moon, from the uncomfortable truth about ultra-high-energy cosmic rays bombarding us to the incredible ways in which humanity has harnessed cataclysmic energy for its gain, Berman masterfully synthesizes some of our worst fears into an astonishing portrait of the universe that promises to transform the way we look at the world(s) around us. In the spirit of Neil deGrasse Tyson and Carlo Rovelli, what emerges is a rollicking, profound, and even humbling exploration of all the things that can go bump in the night."--Dust jacket.

Contents

• Part I: Cataclysms in the heavens. Cataclysms 101 ; It really was a Big Bang ; The death of cousin Theia ; Spooky things that went bang ; Blame it on the supernova ; Armageddon monument ; Tycho versus Kepler : dueling detonations ; When galaxies collide ; Magnetic violence ; The lethal antimatter fountain ; Dangerous bubbles ; The exploding galaxy next door ; Waiting for a Carrington cataclysm ; Can we trust space itself? ; The final supernova ; The 2017 kilonova
• Part II: Cataclysms of Earth. The oxygen holocaust ; The greatest mass extinction ; The dino saur show gets canceled ; Snowball Earth ; The plague ; Just the flu ; The Second World War ; Nuclear cataclysms ; A new state capital? ; Secrets of Chernobyl ; The hybrid cataclysm ; That thermonuclear business ; Modern meteors and flipping poles ; When it sure seemed like the apocalypse ; Invading our bodies today
• Part III: Tomorrow's cataclysms. Collision with Andromeda ; Upcoming cataclysms ; Holocene extinction ; The sun has the last word.