Over the years, NASA has made an incalculable number of advances in space technology and research, and those contributions have sometimes made life better for the world - but it appears that NASA might want to consider outsourcing its advanced doom calculations. A 13 year old German kid corrected an erroneous calculation made by NASA that was to determine the likelihood of a killer asteroid impacting the Earth. Apophis, the asteroid of death, is scheduled in April 2029 to orbit our planet in such a fashion that it might impact one of the 40,000 satellites currently hanging around up in space - and if Apophis does strike one of those satellites, Germany's little doom prophet calculated that it has a 1 in 450 chance of colliding with our planet on its next orbit in 2036. NASA incorrectly put the odds at 1 in 45,000.
- another version of the story
NASA had estimated the chance that the asteroid Apophis would hit the Earth at 1 in 45,000. But a 13 year old German boy found mistakes in NASA’s calculations. Nico Marquardt correctly estimated that the chance really is at 1 in 450. NASA told its sister organization, the European Space Agency (ESA), that the student's calculations were, in fact, correct. Marquardt made his discovery as part of a regional science competition.
The fact the asteroid has 1 in 450 chance of hitting the earth is alarming. What is more alarming is the unknown mistakes by international space agencies that can make us confidently sleep at night while an asteroid is its way to destroy us.
- brilliant!
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