Joshua returns in a new pulse-pounding mystery of the 2012 prophecy

The book presents theoretical and experimental studies of ice fracturing process during impact and explosion load. It shows how to obtain ice in natural and artificial conditions. The book summarizes the results of full-scale experiments for 5 years on undermining ice sheets with emulsion explosives. It presents an algorithm that simulates the process of fracturing of thick ice subjected to blast load, showing that the behavior of ice under impact and explosive loads can be described by a model of continuum mechanics. Qualitative and quantitative assessments of the ballistic perfomance of an ice cube after deep penetration low-velocity projectiles are reported in this book. Some pilot problems are formulated for a deeper understanding of the mechanics of ice fracturing during impact and explosion.

Josh is back-and the world needs his help more than ever! Josh is safely home . . . or so he thinks. He soon realises that life will never be the same again. He is a Bakab, the one person who can save the world from total destruction in 2012, and a lot of very dangerous people want to stop him. Who can he trust? And how can Josh save the world, when he couldn't even save his father . . .

Despite their global importance, little is known about the few existing examples of impacts into marine environments and icy targets. They are among the least understood and studied parts of impact crater geology. The icy impacts are also of great importance in understanding the developments of the outer planets and their satellites such as Mars or Europa. Furthermore, the impact mechanisms, crater formation and collapse, melt production and the ejecta distribution are scarcely known for impact on targets other than the "classical" solid silicates of the continental crust. The reaction of water and ice to impacts clearly deserves a more thorough study. The understanding of impact effects and consequences in the case of aqueous hits, soft sediments and icy targets has not been thoroughly explored and comprises the main focus of this book. A number of papers in the field of hypervelocity impacts on ice are included. These cover a review of available literature in the field of laboratory studies of such impacts, large impact structures on Titan, predicting impact cratering on a comet nucleus, and a novel report on the survival of bacteria fired at hypervelocity into icy surfaces. This latter paper is concerned with astrobiology and in particular Panspermia (natural migration of life through space).

The study of comets is a field that has seen tremendous advances in recent years, far surpassing the knowledge reflected in the original Comets volume published as part of the Space Science Series in 1982. This new volume, with more than seventy contributing authors, represents the first complete overview of comet science in more than a decade and contains the most extensive collection of knowledge yet assembled in the field. Comets II situates comet science in the global context of astrophysics for the first time by beginning with a series of chapters that describe the connection between stars and planets. It continues with a presentation of the formation and evolution of planetary systems, enabling the reader to clearly see the key role played in our own solar system by the icy planetesimals that were the seeds of the giant planets and transneptunian objects. The book presents the key results obtained during the 1990s, in particular those collected during the apparition of the exceptional comets C/Hyakutake and C/Hale-Bopp in 1996-1997. The latest results obtained from the in situ exploration of comets P/Borrelly and P/Wild 2 are also discussed in detail. Each topic of is designed to be accessible to students or young researchers looking for basic, yet detailed, complete and accurate, information on comet science. With its emphasis on the origin of theories and the future of research, Comets II will enable scientists to make connections across disciplinary boundaries and will set the stage for discovery and new understanding in the coming years.