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NASA Denies A Teen Corrected Its Math
A teenager from Germany schooled NASA, or did he? The 13-year-old boy is Nico Marquardt. He changed the calculations of America's top scientists on the risk of an asteroid hitting the Earth. The asteroid, called Apophis, will pass by our planet on April 13, 2029.
NASA said that there's only a 1 in 45,000 chance that Apophis will hit Earth. But what they didn't account for was if the asteroid first hits one of the 40,000 satellites that orbit our planet. If that happens, then the asteroid might get knocked into a new orbit that would bring it closer on its return trip in 2036. According to Nico it would then have a 1 in 450 chance of smacking us on that trip. He did the math as part of a science project he called "the Killer Asteroid."
After stories about Nico appeared on the Internet, NASA said it stands behind its numbers. Scientists there say that there is no chance that Apophis will hit one of the satellites orbiting Earth, and they haven't changed their current estimates of a 1 in 45,000 chance of a collision. Right now, Apophis is 147 million miles away. If it did hit, the result could be shockwaves, tsunamis, and dust that blots out the sun for years. The smaller the chance of that happening, the better!
I'm Adelbert and that's what happened in science this week!
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