schoolboy, 13, corrects NASA

[11chaos]

A 13-year-old German schoolboy corrected NASA's estimates on the chances of an asteroid colliding with Earth.

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.

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.

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."

[Butch]

Yeah but something big is gonna happen before that. June or July 2012 the moon, sun and earth will be aligned perfectly. Something about gravatational pulls and earthquakes, ect.. Aka not a time to be on the beach LOL

[streicher187]

I knew 13 year olds were smarter than our president but when they correct nasa with a science project that's kind of sad

[11chaos]

Originally Posted by Butch

Yeah but something big is gonna happen before that. June or July 2012 the moon, sun and earth will be aligned perfectly. Something about gravatational pulls and earthquakes, ect.. Aka not a time to be on the beach LOL

Yeah, I saw that the Aztecs and some other ancient civilization stopped their calendars after some date in 2012. Crazy.

yes, when a kid is able to catch a mistake of this magnitude, NASA is shore to have egg on their face.