(meteorobs) [Student project on stopping asteroid impacts]

[Robert Warren]

Barbara and all,

There is a wealth of information available pertaining to the impact 
phenomena.  There are books that are concerned only the search for such 
possible impactors, with the impact mechanics, the impact effects such as 
the ejecta, impact melt, etc..  There are a number of books that cover the 
prevention or mitigation of impacts.  All of these topics are interrelated 
since in order to understand how to mitigate an impact you first must 
understand a few characteristics that pertain to only that object, such as 
what the object is made of, its velocity,etc..  Then we must also understand 
the mcharacteristics of the material that it might impact into or the impact 
medium.  That can greatly effect the end results of the impact.

I would suggest that first you check with Cambridge University Press as they 
published a book earlier this year that deals mostly with the mitigation 
aspects.  Its title is something like "The Mitigation of Hazardous Comets 
and Asteroids."  I ave a copy but not with me at this moment.  Then if you 
search through the NOAO (National Optical Astronomy Observatory) website, 
they have all of the abstract for the above book available for download as 
several PDF's.

If you should go to the NASA NEO Harzards webpage, they have available for 
downloading the 1992 and the 1995 books that discuss the search for such 
objects, one volume was edited by D. Morrison and the other by E. M. 
Shoemaker.

There are also a number of books that get really deep into the impact 
mechanics such as

"Shock Metamorphism of Natural Materials" edited by B. M. French, and N. M. 
Short, 1978;

"Impact Cratering: A Geologic Process" by H. J. Melosh, 1989;

"Impact and Explosion Cratering: Planetary and Terrestrial Implications"  D. 
J. Roddy, R. O. Pepin, and R. B. Merrill, 1977;

"Hazards Due to Comets and Asteroids" edited by T. Gehrels, Univ. of Arizona 
Press, 1994;

"Research on Terrestrial Impact Structures" J. Pohl editer, 1987;

and a good generalization volume is " T. Rex and the Crater of Doom" by W. 
Alvarez, 1997.

There are a multitude of others available.  I would also check out the Lunar 
and Planetary Institute Website (<https://www.lpi.usra.edu >) as they have a 
number of volumes available full of abstracts from various meetings that 
discuss the impact problem including one available for download as an PDF 
that deals solely as a textbook, with the indicators or criteria that can 
and are being used to determine what structures on the Earth's surface are 
in fact impact craters.  Then you can also do online searches on Google and 
come up with a wealth of information.

Well, I hope that this information may be of some help.

Good Luck with your project.

Bob Warren
Observatory for Cometary Studies (OCS)