Schoolboy corrects Nasa calculations

Nasa has been outsmarted by a German schoolboy who corrected its estimates of the chances of an asteroid colliding with Earth, it was reported today.

The German Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten newspaper said 13-year-old Nico Marquardt came across the Nasa miscalculation after conducting a study as part of a regional science competition.

The schoolboy used telescopic findings from the Institute of Astrophysics, in Potsdam, to calculate there was a one in 450 chance that the Apophis asteroid would collide with Earth.

guardian.co.uk

theregister.co.uk

Latest News on Apophis: 13 -year-old Boy Corrects NASA's Estimates of Earth Impact — Not! (Update)

It turns out this story is a fabrication and AFP didn't check the facts with NASA as I suspected. According to the blog Cosmos4u, they talked with Don Yeomans at NASA's NEO office and this is what Yeoman's said about the news story of a 13-year old boy correcting NASA's estimates of Apohpis impacting earth: "We have not corresponded with this young man and this story is absurd, a hoax or both. During its 2029 Earth close approach, Apophis will approach the Earth to about 38,900 km, well inside the geosynchronous distance at 42,240 km. However, the asteroid will cross the equatorial belt at a distance of 51,000 km - well outside the geosynchronous distance. Since the uncertainty on Apophis' position during the Earth close approach is about 1500 km, Apophis cannot approach an Earth satellite. Apophis will not cross the moon's orbital plane at the Moon's orbital distance so it cannot approach the moon either."

universetoday.com

Hallo,
hier die deutschen Mendungen.

http://grenzwissenschaft-aktuell.blogsp ... chler.html

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/,ra16m1/wiss ... ticle.html

HB

deutschen Mendungen @ bboard.de

Nico Marquardt ist erst 16 Jahre alt, aber mischt schon im ganz großen Wissenschaftsbetrieb mit

Wenn es stimmt, was der österreichische Wissenschaftler Martin Tajmar vermutet, müsste die Physikgeschichte neu geschrieben werden. Das hieße nämlich, dass Gravitation künstlich erzeugt werden kann. Und vielleicht hätte dann auch ein 16-jähriger Potsdamer Schüler ein bisschen zu dieser Revolution beigetragen. ...

http://www.maerkischeallgemeine.de/cms/ ... ischt.html

http://www.nicomarquardt.de/