Planet Earth is part of our Galactic environment, not just the product of it, and it is still today influenced by phenomena related to Galactic forces. Specifically, our planet is affected by its near environment, in particular the small bodies in the Solar System. This book reviews the processes which cause the collisions of these small bodies with the Earth as well as the consequences of such collisions. The various articles take the reader through the Galaxy-Solar System connection to the orbital dynamics of the small bodies and to their number and distribution in near-Earth space. The hazards of the impacts of small bodies on Earth are evaluated, and the geophysical records of such impacts are discussed. The book takes the reader to the forefront of research on both impact cratering and the origin and evolution of small bodies in the Solar System. Thus it brings together two subjects, geophysics and astronomy, which are usually discussed in separate volumes but are closely knit together in this particular area of research.
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
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Dateigröße
ISBN-13
978-94-009-0209-1 (9789400902091)
DOI
10.1007/978-94-009-0209-1
Schweitzer Klassifikation
The Solar System in the Galactic Environment.- Why We Study the Geological Record for Evidence of the Solar Oscillation about the Galactic Midplane.- The Statistical Effects of Galactic Tides on the Oort Cloud.- Encounters of the Sun with Nearby Stars in the Past and Future.- Star Passages through the Oort Cloud.- Evolution of the Cometary Cloud under the Action of Stellar Perturbations.- Dynamical Evolution of Comets and the Problem of Cometary Fading.- Origin and Evolution of the Long-Period Comets.- Orbits of Short Period Comets Captured from the Oort Cloud.- Polynomial Approximation of Poincare Maps for Hamiltonian Systems.- The Provenance and Evolution of Comets.- On the Aging of Comets.- On the Importance of Dust in Cometary Nuclei.- Processing of Cometary Grains at the Nucleus Surface.- Dust Outflow Velocity and the Gas-to-Dust Ratio in Comets.- Interpretation of HMC Images by a Combined Thermal and Gasdynamic Model.- Effects of Shape and Spin on the Tidal Disruption of P/Shoemaker-Levy 9.- Unusual Comets (?) as Observed from the Hubble Space Telescope.- The Main Belt as a Source of Near-Earth Asteroids.- Dynamical Evolution of NEAs: Close Encounters, Secular Perturbations and Resonances.- Long-Term Behavior of the Motion of Pluto over 5.5 Billion Years.- Capture of Dust Grains in Exterior Resonances with Planets.- SymplecticMethods and Their Application to the Motion of Small Bodies in the Solar System.- From Comets to Asteroids: When Hairy Stars Go Bald.- Modeling of Cometary Evolution by Kinetic Theory: Method and First Results.- Migration of Small Bodies in the Solar System.- Near-Earth Asteroids: Surface Structure and Shapes.- Spin Rates of Asteroids.- Magnetic Properties of Asteroids from Meteorite Data - Implications for Magnetic Anomaly Detections.- The Population of Near-Earth Objects Discovered by Spacewatch.- On the Existence of Small Comets and Their Interactions with Planets.- Possibility of Self-Sustaining Bombardment of Inner Planets.- Discovery of Very Small Asteroids by Automated Trail Detection.- Asteroids Approaching the Earth from Directions around the Sun.- The Uppsala-ESO Survey of Asteroids and Comets.- Discovery and Rediscovery of Trojan Asteroids.- The Limitations of NEO-Uniformitarianism.- Possible Collisions of P/Halley and P/Machholz 1 with Jupiter and the Terrestrial Planets.- Structures and Hazards in the NEO System.- Is 2329 Orthos a Dead Comet?.- Possible Associations of Daytime Fireballs and Planets Minor.- Orbital Evolution of Asteroids with the Effects of MutualGravitational Attraction.- What Can Meteoroid Streams Tell Us about the Ejection Velocities of Dust from Comets.- Radiation Pressure Correction to Meteor Orbits.- On the Importance of the Poynting-Robertson Effect on Meteoroids.- Light Scattering by Gaussian Random Particles.- Are Cratering and Probably Related Geological Records Periodic?.- Terrestrial Impact Craters: Their Spatial and Temporal Distribution and Impacting Bodies.- The Impact Cratering Record of Fennoscandia.- Video Observations, Atmospheric Path, Orbit and Fragmentation Record of the Fall of the Peekskill Meteorite.- Impacts into Oceans and Seas.- Velocity Distribution of Meteoroids in the Vicinity of Planets and Satellites.- Comets, Meteorites and Atmospheres.- Evolution, Punctuational Crises and the Threat to Civilization.- The "Shiva Hypothesis": Impacts, Mass Extinctions, and the Galaxy.- A Jupiter Fragmented Comet: Cause of the K/T Boundary Record.- The Tunguska 1908 Explosion's Region as an International Park of Studies of the Ecological Consequences ofCollisions of the Earth with the Solar System Small Bodies.- The Delivery of Organic Matter from Asteroids and Comets to the Early Surface of Mars.- Experiment "Tsarev" and Differentiation of Chondritic Bodies.- Field-Aligned Current Generation at Plasma Clouds or Bodies with Plasma Shells Moving in Magnetic Fields.- Conference Summary: Comets.- Summary: Asteroids.- Rebuttal of the Comments by A.W. Harris.- Conference Summary: Meteoroids.- The 'KLUWER' LaTeX Style File: Instructions for Authors.
