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EDITORIAL INFORMATION

Asteroids: Their Nature and Utilization is one of the very few non-technical books devoted solely to the asteroids, and is suitable for a general readership. A novel feature of the book is the inclusion of latest research into radar studies of asteroids, the observations of Gaspra and Ida by the Galileo spacecraft, and results of the surveys of near-Earth asteroids, including the record 'close approachers'. The potential hazard posed to the Earth through collisions with asteroids (and comets) is assessed. Possible links between asteroids and comets are discussed, together with the problems posed by objects which display both asteroidals and cometary characteristics, such as the unusual object, Chiron.

This book reviews the latests developments in the field, as well as decribing the history and cataloguing of the various families of asteroids, observational techniques, the astronomical and geological significance of asteroids and possibilities for their future utilization.

(Extracted from the back cover).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Table of Contents.

-List of Illustrations and Tables.

-Preface to the Second Edition.

-Acknowledgements.

-Introduction.

-1. History and Cataloging.

-2. The Main Belt Asteroids.

-3. Observational Techniques.

-4. The Nature of the Asteroids.

-5. Asteroids Beyond the Main Belt.

-6. Asteroids and Comets.

-7. Asteroids Near the Earth.

-8. Collisions.

-9. Utilization of the Asteroids.

-10. The Future of Asteroid Research.

-Appendix A. Asteroids and the Amateur Astronomer.

-Glossary.

-Bibliography.

-Index.

OUR REVIEW

Asteroids is not a complex, technical book. On the contrary, it is aimed at divulging in a pleasant, concise way, everything we know on these small bodies that roam the Solar System. In this second edition of the work, its author, Charles T. Kowal, has completely updated the contents of his work, transformed thanks to the qualitative leap that science has undergone in the area of asteroid research. Let's not forget that many of them have been discovered quite recently in such interesting zones as the Kuiper Belt, and that our probes have suceeded in photographing them directly thanks to their flybies.

The speculations on their nature, then, as the author says, have come to an end. Now the astronomers have got more tangible physical data to get an important step forward in the cataloguing and description of these objects. Thus, and always by means of a tone of maximum divulgation, Kowal reviews the history of the discovery of the asteroids, the different families that integrate them, their characteristics, and even the consequences of the impact of these bodies against the planets, as it could happen with planet Earth.

Kowal does not forget to have a look at the future, describing the possibilities that Humanity may some day economically exploit the asteroids, as well as the advanced programs to be implemented in order to study them in depth during the next decades.