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Schoolboy Corrects NASA's Math On Killer Asteroid

Posted by kdawson on from the little-child-shall-lead-them dept.

spiracle writes "A German schoolboy, Nico Marquardt, has revised NASA's figures for the chances that the Apophis asteroid will hit earth. Apparently if the asteroid hits a satellite in 2029, its path could be diverted enough to cause it to collide with Earth on the next orbit, in 2036. NASA had calculated the chances as 1 in 45,000 but the 13-year-old, in his science project, made it 1 in 450. NASA agreed." Update: 04/16 16:47 GMT by Z : This is not entirely accurate, it turns out — more details.

5 of 637 comments (clear)

  1. But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Maybe NASA performed their calculations in a vacuum...
    Or maybe the kid did!

    :)

  2. Re:wrong wrong WRONG by daveime · · Score: -1, Troll

    Offtopic, but like I care ...

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  3. I blame the metric system. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    What's the likelihood someone at NASA who does the mid-range equations was using imperial when everyone else was using metric again?

    Answer in percentage form.

  4. Re:Dang by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I bent my wookie.

  5. bitter are we? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    nasa is filled with a bunch of bureaucratic dumb fucks, 50% of its staff is managers battling each other in a game of personal 1 upsmanship rather than advancing science on sound research. your program is badly dated, with no signs of advancing anything on your slow money vaccume pace. keep dreaming about your next craft that will never be funded.

    yes your precious nasa got outwitted by a 13 year old boy on a huge issue. arrogant cocksuckers like you need to give credit where credit is due. you reek of the nasa management attitude. GP was correct in that nasa ignores all kinds of shit. look at space shuttle columbia, and how the piece of shit broke apart upon re-entry. look at your failing space program. us russians are far ahead of you dimwits with far less resources and money. and who will be maintaining the space station the years after your junk shuttles get scraped? that's right prick.

    now that we've cleared that up, you can go back to your arrogant shit job that will be surpassed by us russians, china, india, europe and japan with far greater engineering.