How to Kill an Asteroid : W.W. Norton and Company : 9781324050193 : 1324050195 : 01 Oct 2024 : There are approximately 25,000 "city-killer" asteroids in near-Earth orbit-and most are yet to be found. Small enough to evade detection, they are capable of large-scale destruction and represent our greatest cosmic threat. But in September 2022, against all odds, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission deliberately crashed a spacecraft into a carefully selected city-killer, altering the asteroid's orbit and proving that we stand a chance against them. In How to Kill an Asteroid, award-winning science journalist Robin George Andrews-who was at DART mission control when it happened-reveals the development of the technology that made it possible, from spotting elusive asteroids and comets to figuring out their geologic defenses and orchestrating a deflection campaign. In a propulsive narrative that reads like a sci-fi thriller, Andrews tells the story of the planetary defense mo