The Asteroid Hunter
A Scientist's Journey to the Dawn of our Solar System
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
In this "captivating, behind-the-scenes account" of NASA’s historic mission to return an asteroid sample and unlock the mystery of life on earth, readers will experience the daring mission while learning about its brave crew (Sara Seager).
On September 11, 1999, humanity made a monumental discovery: an asteroid as massive as an aircraft carrier and towering as high as the Empire State Building. This cosmic titan (later named Bennu) belonged to a rare breed of asteroids capable of revealing the essence of life itself. But just as Bennu became a beacon of promise, researchers identified a grave danger. Hurtling through space, it threatens to collide with our planet on September 24, 2182.
Leading the expedition was Dr. Dante Lauretta, the Principal Investigator of NASA's audacious OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission. His team embarked on a quest to retrieve a precious sample from the asteroid's surface — one that held the potential to not only unlock the secrets of life's origins, but also to avert an unprecedented catastrophe.
A tale of destiny and danger, The Asteroid Hunter chronicles the high-stakes mission firsthand and promises a rare glimpse into the tightly woven fabric of scientific exploration, where technical precision converges with humanity’s profound curiosity and indominable spirit.
Now in paperback with an exciting bonus chapter!
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
You probably don’t know how fascinating the Bennu asteroid is—but Dr. Dante Lauretta does, and he explains it all in this riveting science read. It turns out there’s a chance that the Bennu asteroid might slam into our planet sometime in the 22nd century, causing widespread death and destruction. So, as the leader of the team tasked with studying Bennu, Lauretta walks us through the process of trying to study it, complete with all the scientific and monetary challenges of taking on a massive space mission. We felt like we were on the ride right alongside him, holding our breath as his team at NASA made the game-changing breakthrough of landing a vessel on the surface of the asteroid to take samples. Who needs science fiction when reality is this riveting?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this stellar debut memoir, planetary scientist Lauretta details his work as the principal investigator for NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, initiated in 2011 to retrieve an asteroid sample that arrived on Earth in September 2023. While working at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Lauretta discovered that schreibersite (a compound "ubiquitous in meteorites") forms substances critical to life when dissolved in water, suggesting asteroids might hold "the key to understanding the origin of life on Earth." Invigorated, Lauretta signed on to NASA's mission to collect a sample from the asteroid Bennu. Recreations of planning sessions between engineers provide captivating insight into the hard work and ingenuity that went into the mission. (Lauretta explains that calculating Bennu's weak orbit required his team to pioneer a novel way of determining an asteroid's mass by measuring how much heat it emits.) The author is a talented storyteller, spinning a gripping narrative out of scientists' efforts to overcome unforeseen obstacles under intense pressure ("Suddenly, I heard a brief gasp of surprise off to my right.... My mouth fell open as I glanced at the scene that appeared on screen," he writes of learning that "Bennu's surface had just exploded" for poorly understood reasons). Armchair astronomers should consider this a must read. Photos.
