Wanted: Asteroid Insurance

[stu]

Kids Say the Darndest Things.

Source

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."
 

I need to make sure I'm not in Miami when this goes down.

[IainC]

It would have been a great story if it were true.

But it isn'tI'm afraid.

[lac]

That's just what they want you to believe. We are all going to die.

[stu]

That's all just the space defense industry creating spin so they can get funding to build their asteroid smashers.

[Sky]

Apophis? Oh shit!

[Phildo]

Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck will be too old to save us, so we'd better start grooming the next generation of superhuman soldiers.  I suspect the Chinese are already working on this.

[Righ]

Apophis? Oh shit!

Yes, the Stargate character was the inspiration for the discoverers to name the asteroid Apophis.

[Merusk]

Really? Wow, I wonder how much revenue from copyright MGM gets for all those works Egypotigists publish. 

[Righ]

Can you read? The Stargate character was the inspiration for naming the asteroid. I'm sure that they were just as aware as I am that the character in Stargate was named after an Egyptian demon, which Egyptologists have no fucking intellectual property claims on. Egyptologists would likely use the name Apep in most papers, BTW.

[Merusk]

I don't do green.  Adjust your panties.

[Morat20]

Yes, the Stargate character was the inspiration for the discoverers to name the asteroid Apophis.

Was it because he was a badass, or because the Gou'ald once flung an asteroid at Earth in an attempt to bypass the Protected Planets Treaty?

Although without McGuyver and a cargo ship, I'm not sure how we'll beat this one.

[Signe]

Yes, the Stargate character was the inspiration for the discoverers to name the asteroid Apophis.

Was it because he was a badass, or because the Gou'ald once flung an asteroid at Earth

That's why.