Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Last Stop Eternal City
    Last Stop Eternal City
    Last Stop Eternal City
    Ebook86 pages56 minutes

    Last Stop Eternal City

    By Claudio Elidoro

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    It’s not easy to discuss the topic of cosmic impact events. Not even if, to talk about it in a fascinating way, you decide to follow the paths of fantasy. There is always the lurking risk of getting carried away by an excessive trivialization or by the show’s sake. Often setting aside – or even ignoring – every possible connection with the physical reality and with the laws that rule it.
    Here the choice is different. In fact, not only I try to find the right alchemy between the scientific strictness, the simplicity of exposition and the exact dose of literary fantasy that makes the tale believable – because it is still a tale. Here, instead, I want to prove to take a more complicated road. Not as much on the events, almost trivial in their inevitable progression, but on the decision of telling the facts while relying on rigorous scientific studies. This is, maybe, a strange way of trying to do scientific divulgation.
    The scenario that I decided to hypotize is the one of an impact event upon a big metropolis of our days. And which city can evoke more charm and attract more attention than the Eternal City? It will be hypotized an impact on Rome. Nothing that is terribly big, nothing similar to the popular “dinosaurs impact”, so dear to literature and cinema. The bullet will be a small asteroid, a little bit bigger than fifty meters, identificated, almost by chance, at the very last minute, when there are just a few hours left to its appointment with the Earth.
    Despite the small size of the bullet, however, the scenario that will open in front of our eyes will be frightfully destructive. The most dramatic aspect is that this scenario is not the result of fervid fantasies, but due to precise and accurate scientific analysis.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherClaudio Elidoro
    Release dateDec 29, 2017
    ISBN9781370582662
    Last Stop Eternal City
    Author

    Claudio Elidoro

    Claudio Elidoro is an Italian teacher. Graduated in astronomy, he has achieved a Master in Scientific communication. He collaborates with some Italian astronomical magazines and scientific web portal Scienzainrete. Its main interest is the analysis of the problems concerning to the impact of comets and asteroids on the Earth, but it takes care also of more common astronomical topics. Asteroid (43956) Elidoro has been named after him.Mi sono laureato in Astronomia presso l’Università di Bologna con una tesi riguardante i Corpi minori del Sistema solare e diplomato al Master in Comunicazione Scientifica presso l’Università di Milano.Insegno matematica e informatica in una scuola professionale di Cremona e svolgo attività di divulgazione scientifica (soprattutto su temi astronomici) scrivendo per il Web e su riviste di settore.Nel dicembre 2006 il Minor Planet Center ha assegnato il mio nome all’asteroide (43956) Elidoro.

    Related to Last Stop Eternal City

    Related ebooks

    Science Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Interactive

      Aug 13, 2020

      Interactive
      5 min read

    • Article

      Interactive

      Sep 16, 2021

      Interactive
      5 min read

    • Article

      Interactive

      Sep 17, 2020

      Email us at inbox@skyatnightmagazine.com PHILIP’S The ‘Message of the Month’ writer will receive a bundle of four top titles courtesy of astronomy publisher Philip’s: Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion’s Star Chart, Robin Scagell’s Guide to the Northern Cons

      5 min read

    • Article

      To See the Unseeable

      Dec 10, 2019

      To See the Unseeable
      9 min read

    • Article

      Interactive

      Jan 21, 2021

      Email us at inbox@skyatnightmagazine.com Brother Guy Conslomagno’s Christmas Lecture, The Great Conjunction and The Star of Bethlehem’, was my very first Sky at Night Magazine webinar and I look forward to many more. The time allotted seemed perfect

      4 min read

    • Article

      Interactive

      May 18, 2023

      Email us at inbox@skyatnightmagazine.com MESSAGE OF THE MONTH This month’s top prize: two Philip’s titles The ‘Message of the Month’ writer will receive a bundle of two top titles courtesy of astronomy publisher Philip’s: Nigel Henbest’s Stargazing 2

      5 min read

    • Article

      Interactive

      Nov 18, 2021

      Interactive
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Sky’s The Limit

      Aug 29, 2019

      The Sky’s The Limit
      5 min read

    • Article

      Interactive

      Jul 14, 2022

      Interactive
      4 min read

    • Article

      Astronomical Ambrosia

      Oct 12, 2022

      Astronomical Ambrosia
      6 min read

    • Article

      In The Shops

      Jan 28, 2021

      In The Shops
      4 min read

    • Article

      Interactive

      Oct 22, 2020

      Email us at inbox@skyatnightmagazine.com The ‘Message of the Month’ writer will receive a bundle of four top titles courtesy of astronomy publisher Philip’s: Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion’s Star Chart, Robin Scagell’s Guide to the Northern Constellation

      5 min read

    • Article

      Interactive

      Oct 20, 2022

      Interactive
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Astrophysicists Who Faked It: The inside story of the gravitational wave signal injection.

      Nov 3, 2016

      At 2:40 a.m., my phone woke me up. At least one of us was always on shift, and that night in September of 2010, I had volunteered to respond to automated text messages from our alert system. As a graduate student at the time, I (Jonah) had helped bui

      13 min read

    • Article

      Looking For Life On Mars

      Sep 29, 2021

      Terri Randall’s hope when she makes films about space exploration—like Chasing Pluto, for example, or Death Dive to Saturn—is that viewers share scientists’ excitement. That rush of success and discovery. “Look at this moment, and look at his eyes, a

      10 min read

    • Article

      Stars In His Eyes

      Jun 23, 2023

      Stars In His Eyes
      7 min read

    • Article

      Interactive

      Jun 18, 2020

      Even in these trying times astronomy is still a great spirit lifter. I have been a regular attendee of Chesterfield Astronomical Society for the past 10 years but, of course, the current lockdown restrictions prevent us going to the Observatory. The

      4 min read

    • Article

      How My Nobel Dream Bit the Dust

      Apr 19, 2018

      “You may speculate from the day that days were created, but you may not speculate on what was before that.”—Talmud, Tractate Hagigah 11b, 450 A.D. To go back to the beginning, if there was a beginning, means testing the dominant theory of cosmogenesi

      16 min read

    • Article

      Emails - Letters - Tweets - Facebook - Instagram - Kit questions INTERACTIVE

      Jul 13, 2023

      MESSAGE OF THE MONTH This month’s top prize: two Philip’s titles The ‘Message of the Month’ writer will receive a bundle of two top titles courtesy of astronomy publisher Philip’s: Nigel Henbest’s Stargazing 2023 and Robin Scagell’s Guide to the Nort

      4 min read

    • Article

      Interactive

      Nov 16, 2023

      Email us at inbox@skyatnightmagazine.com MESSAGE OF THE MONTH astro_alvarado • 14 October Cloudy Annular Eclipse. Three chances against clouds, three accurate shots. Gear: Canon 700D 200mm and Baader solar filter black polymer #2023 #annulareclipse #

      3 min read

    • Article

      Stephen Kerr

      Apr 15, 2020

      Stephen Kerr
      3 min read

    • Article

      Looking for a Second Earth in the Shadows: Scientists Are Blocking out the Light of Distant Suns to Look for Life.: Scientists are blocking out the light of distant suns to look for life.

      Mar 13, 2014

      Some dark, clear nights, when the blazing stars cast shadows down on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, the astronomer Olivier Guyon steps away from his workbench and computer screens and walks outside the giant 8-meter Subaru Telescope to savor the heavens. Guyon b

      10 min read

    • Article

      Looking For A Second Earth In The Shadows

      Aug 2, 2018

      Some dark, clear nights, when the blazing stars cast shadows down on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, the astronomer Olivier Guyon steps away from his workbench and computer screens and walks outside the giant 8-meter Subaru Telescope to savor the heavens. Guyon b

      10 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Nov 17, 2022

      Giles Sparrow Thames & Hudson £50 • HB Johann Doppelmayr’s original Atlas Coelestis was first published in 1742, bringing together (as the introduction to this new volume explains) astronomical theories and areas of interest important to the European

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Last Stop Eternal City

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Last Stop Eternal City - Claudio Elidoro

      ************

      by Claudio Elidoro

      Copyright 2013 Scienzainrete

      Smashwords Edition

      User license

      Thanks for downloading this free ebook.

      Feel free share it with your friends.

      This ebook can be reproduced, copied and distributed

      for non-commercial purposes, provided that

      remain complete and in its original form.

      If you like it, return in Smashwords.com

      to discovery other works of this author.

      Thank you for your support

      Thanks

      Thank you to Scienzainrete (www.scienzainrete.it)

      for granting the spread of this ebook

      ************

      Summary

      Introduction

      Chapter 1 - A feeble glow in the dawn

      Chapter 2 - With tied hands

      Chapter 3 - Collision course!

      Chapter 4 - The circle narrows

      Chapter 5 - Target acquired

      Chapter 6 - The useless escape

      Chapter 7 - Finis est Romae

      Appendix 1 - Scenario Metus

      Appendix 2 - Illustrious precedents…

      Bibliography

      About the author...

      Introduction

      It’s not easy to discuss the topic of cosmic impact events. Not even if, to talk about it in a fascinating way, you decide to follow the paths of fantasy. There is always the lurking risk of getting carried away by an excessive trivialization or by the show’s sake. Often setting aside – or even ignoring – every possible connection with the physical reality and with the laws that rule it. It is a choice that we could even forgive to whom decided to set his story in a hypothetical world, which is, for some obscure reasons, relieved from putting up with the firm regulations of the laws of Physics. It is an absolutely deplorable choice, if, instead, you decide that the story, even though fantastic, must take place in the real world.

      It is all to obvious that, if you find yourself stuck with an heavy weight of strict rules that you have to obey, then this would inevitably clip your wings. Any fantasy flair is compulsorily forbidden even though they could surprise your reader by ensuring incredible turns in your story. It is as much undeniable that those annoying laws show you clearly the path that you have to undertake, but then it is your job to find a way to describe the events in a simple and effective way. Anything but trivial, therefore, it is to find the right alchemy between the scientific strictness, the simplicity of exposition and the exact dose of literary fantasy that makes the tale believable – because it is still a tale. In short, I think it is clear at this point how the hardest task in the writing of these pages was to search for the right doses in this delicate cocktail of science and fantasy. Not even such a popular theme like the one of impact events can enjoy any privilege. It is true, often successfull fictions did not care about physical laws and they have been appreciated by the great audience. Here, instead, I want to prove to take a more complicated road. Not as much on the events – almost trivial in their inevitable progression – but on the decision of telling the facts while relying on rigorous scientific studies. This is, maybe, a strange way of trying to do scientific divulgation.

      The scenario that I decided to hypotize is the one of an impact event upon a big metropolis of our days. And which city can evoke more charm and attract more attention than the Eternal City? It will be hypotized an impact on Rome. Nothing that is terribly big, nothing similar to the popular dinosaurs impact, so dear to literature and cinema. The bullet will be a small asteroid, a little bit bigger than fifty meters, identificated, almost by chance, at the very last minute, when there are just a few hours left to its appointment with the Earth. A circumstance not exceptional at all, since more than once we noticed an asteroid of this same size passing by near our planet when the cosmic rock was already moving away. Despite the small size of the bullet, however, the scenario that will open in front of our eyes will be frightfully destructive. The most dramatic aspect is that this scenario is not the result of fervid fantasies, but due to precise and accurate scientific analysis.

      In conclusion, let me offer my official apologies to everybody who, even though I haven’t had the pleasure to meet personally, I took the liberty of dragging in the game of the story without them knowing, flanking them with fictional characters. I kept the original names of some of them, for the others I arranged to hide their identity through simple enigmistic games. I trust that the great friendliness and kindness

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1