Posted on 04/15/2008 4:30:27 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter
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."
Gives me plenty of confidence in their global warming predictions. /s
math and science isn't as important as having american kids learn about global warming and the activist gay agenda.
Rut row, NASA needs to get it's collective head out of it's a$$.
How scary is this?
Well this didn’t tell us anything we didn’t know about N.A.S.A. by now. Beyond that, yawn...
“Rut row, NASA needs to get it’s collective head out of it’s a$$.”
NASA ain’t what it used to be.
This kid will make a great bookie!
There is a lot of empty space up there. What is the probability of a Satellite-Comet collision?
Well good, now can we turn the Global Warming B/S over to the second graders for a definitive answer?
Putting on my tinfoil hat, I wonder if they just didn’t want us to know how high the odds are.
The only plan now is to catalog these things. There is no hardware in space to deal with something that emerges from space on a three-day collision course, which is what will get us. It will come up unexpected and it will probably be a swarm rather than a single asteroid.
Obviously it was yet another kilometer to mile conversion mistake by NASA ;)
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.
Does this mean that NASA did not take this risk in to account.
If it does it seems like a rather large oversight. I as a relatively uneducated individual thought about the possibility when Apophis close approach was reported last year.
Maybe they need to go back to duct tape and bubble gum.
Seems to me NASA is regressing, a pinnacle reached back in the early 70's? How pathetic is that!
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.
This raises the possibility that a satellite could intentionally be used to alter the course of the asteroid.
Just how would a cloud of dust rise from the Atlantic ocean? - Is there anything NASA can get right anymore? They sure blew it when they conveniently forgot about the missing data from Siberian stations and arrived at the conclusion that we were warming when we were cooling.
Or a nuclear warhead on an ICBM.... Nah, they made them to kill people, not save'm.
Not surprising. Today’s NASA is a shadow of yesterday’s.
First Hubble, now this sh*t, WTF? Everyone makes mistakes but these care kinda important. NASA needs a better QA program now! Come on boys....get your sh*t together....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.