13-year old boy corrects NASA's asteroid calculations. Earth is in great danger

[zney25]

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German schoolboy, 13, corrects NASA's asteroid figures: paper

Berlin - A 13-year-old German schoolboy corrected NASA's estimates on the chances of an asteroid colliding with Earth, a German newspaper reported Tuesday, after spotting the boffins had miscalculated.

Nico Marquardt used telescopic findings from the Institute of Astrophysics in Potsdam (AIP) to calculate that there was a 1 in 450 chance that the Apophis asteroid will collide with Earth, the Potsdamer Neuerster Nachrichten reported.

NASA had previously estimated the chances at only 1 in 45,000 but told its sister organisation, the European Space Agency (ESA), that the young whizzkid had got it right.

The schoolboy took into consideration the risk of Apophis running into one or more of the 40,000 satellites orbiting Earth during its path close to the planet on April 13 2029.

Those satellites travel at 3.07 kilometres a second (1.9 miles), at up to 35,880 kilometres above earth -- and the Apophis asteroid will pass by earth at a distance of 32,500 kilometres.

If the asteroid strikes a satellite in 2029, that will change its trajectory making it hit earth on its next orbit in 2036.

Both NASA and Marquardt agree that if the asteroid does collide with earth, it will create a ball of iron and iridium 320 metres (1049 feet) wide and weighing 200 billion tonnes, which will crash into the Atlantic Ocean.

The shockwaves from that would create huge tsunami waves, destroying both coastlines and inland areas, whilst creating a thick cloud of dust that would darken the skies indefinitely.

The 13-year old made his discovery as part of a regional science competition for which he submitted a project entitled: "Apophis -- The Killer Astroid." -- AFP


wow!...cool kid...wAyuk jud ning bataa dah...may jud paliwatan.....gi pass pa niya para project..... :mrgreen:

[rednjep]

hmmm.. director of NASA in the making...

[cebu1029]

maybe or maybe not! i would assume that the superpowers will have nuclear tipped missiles to do that. or mag ala Armageddon! hehehe!!!

[yokam]

NASA refutes 13-year old boy's computation about an asteroid hitting earth.

It read like a space-age tale of David and Goliath. An enterprising 13-year-old German boy recalculates the likelihood of an asteroid hitting Earth, alerts NASA, and the big American space agency acknowledges he's right. Only problem? It's not true.

Officials from both NASA and the European Space Agency have refuted the account, which sped across the Web at the speed of light. The young man's asteroid-strike numbers were not correct and the U.S. space agency has not, repeat has not, changed its mind about the 1-in-45,000 chance that the hurtling hunk of rock will collide with our planet. (The student thought it was a 1-in-450 chance. Yikes!)

Unfortunately, all this came out after articles on the teen's statistical success soared in Buzz, and even made it to the Yahoo! front page. Lookups for "apophis," the asteroid in question, surged into the top hourly searches.

Here's the link:

http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/91346/...uzz-you-missed

I wonder what's with NASA now. The other day they said that the boy's claims were true and the next day they're all saying that such claims are false. I've got a feeling that the boy was right and NASA is just trying to avoid panic, so they're telling everybody that the boy's computations were wrong. Imagine a 1/450 chance of being hit by an asteroid, that's not a really good figure compared to their previous 1/45,000 calculation.

[naejtim]

As expected. NASA has higher scale instruments than what the boy had.

[clarkhkent]

@makoy....ingon ana man jud nang mga scientist bisan sayup sila....di jud na sila palupig kay 13 year old gyud nay ilang kontra...hahaha...poor scientist

[naejtim]

They have accurate proof. The boy was merely calculating.

[clarkhkent]

pero ingon man gud sila pirmero nga sakto ang boy....nya karon sayup na....hus telling the truth kaha? hmmm....and also dli kaau ko salig anang NASA kay kapila nana sila masipyat....

[naejtim]

I think the scenario was like this; newspeople asked a representative from NASA. That representative, who knew that the scientists were out, apparently told that it was indeed correct. The scientists, upon returning to their seats, got bewildered with the outbreaking news and called the media. They reported that answer the representative gave out was false. He was just mistaken for a representative when he was actually a visitor.

[cebugdev]

Scientist vs a 13-year old boy?o cmon!
scientist with years and years of experience ma lupigan sa boy na 13 years palang nag stay buhi sa earth? thats not how science and experience works.

pero ingon man gud sila pirmero nga sakto ang boy....nya karon sayup na....hus telling the truth kaha? hmmm....and also dli kaau ko salig anang NASA kay kapila nana sila masipyat....

Scientists are different from politicians and even religious groups, they based thier arguments on facts, evidence and study.. not mere speculations and theories,conspiracies + media frenzy...