Sorry, the kid didn’t know what he was talking about. Nor did all the bloggers who picked up the tale…
If he had been proved correct, 13-year-old Nico Marquardt might have embarrassed some of NASA’s finest scientists. The schoolboy astronomer thought the space agency had missed something when calculating whether or not an asteroid it is tracking is likely to hit the Earth in 2036. His own calculation suggested that a collision is hundreds of times more likely than Nasa thinks.
But anyone concerned about an imminent impact should rest easy. Scientists welcomed the German teenager’s enthusiasm but have pointed to a number of errors in his work. And reports that Nasa has put its hands up and admitted errors (repeated all over the web today) seem wildly exaggerated…
Monica Grady a planetary scientist at the Open University in the UK…isn’t worried by Marquardt’s calculations. “Not until I see some more evidence. It’s really interesting that it should come to light in this particular way and it shows there is always room for people to check up on things and it’s very valuable that they do. But it’s not something that I’ll read and think, oh crikey, I better start laying in the baked beans.”
It’s simple. Everyone wants to point a finger and say ha ha your wrong. Your stupid blah blah blah. Everyone’s got a mouth but only a few have a brain. How many times have you seen or know of a person who writes a response without reading the article? I saw this on first on the digg site and I even said how did the kid have all the calculations that NASA did? Why did one set of eyes surpass all their double checking engineers? but it goes to show you that We are taking this whole “info from the net” thing way too seriously. It isn’t always right, In fact i see it a lot as personal opinion based on made up facts created by the item’s appearance and demeanor. It WILL NOT replace mainstream media for such reasons, and I don’t care how many times you say well big media is also wrong. The internet can be and will always be wrong in some aspects. Everything in moderation, and make sure you have some salt (and maybe an encyclopedia) on hand.
And to all you big name news companies, if you want to stay ahead of the internet, make sure your correct in all your facts. I wish I knew of a term for percentage of stories that are factually wrong. I would be using that word like it’s going out of style.
If the object hits the earth, we’ll all blame NASA, if it doesn’t the boy will be a hero.
I for one hope it does hit us.
Unlike many journalistic sources, the Guardian actually has a few people on staff whose prime function is not only to report on science; but, to debunk junk science.
It drives the nutball crowd – Right or Left – out of their respective trees.
#1–why do you need salt?
“I wish I knew of a term for percentage of stories that are factually wrong”–errors?
It’s odd that it wasn’t a student from the U.S. that pointed out the potential error.
Makes you very confident that they’ll succeed in slinging a trillion dollars worth of hardware and astronauts to Mars.
I hell I just read the date. Not my worry.
Their temperature measurements were busted by an independent scientist. As a result, they no longer claim that 1998 is the warmest year on record.
#9:
Or it could be because 2005 was actually the warmest year on record, depending on who you believe.
Here you go …
I knew my subscription to the NASA News e-mail list would “pay off in spades” some day !!!
/T.
April 16, 2008
Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 08-103
NASA STATEMENT ON STUDENT ASTEROID CALCULATIONS
WASHINGTON — The Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., has not changed its
current estimates for the very low probability (1 in 45,000) of an
Earth impact by the asteroid Apophis in 2036.
Contrary to recent press reports, NASA offices involved in near-Earth
object research were not contacted and have had no correspondence
with a young German student, who claims the Apophis impact
probability is far higher than the current estimate.
This student’s conclusion reportedly is based on the possibility of a
collision with an artificial satellite during the asteroid’s close
approach in April 2029. However, the asteroid will not pass near the
main belt of geosynchronous satellites in 2029, and the chance of a
collision with a satellite is exceedingly remote.
Therefore, consideration of this satellite collision scenario does not
affect the current impact probability estimate for Apophis, which
remains at 1 in 45,000.
So… does this mean that Leo Beiderman kid is wrong too?