In fact, sometimes it's better if you're not.
Sometimes, like when it comes to predicting catastrophic asteroid impacts, it's better if you're -- oh, I don't know -- a 13-YEAR-OLD GERMAN KID!!!That's right. The national brain trust at NASA just had their pocket protectors handed to them by a pimply faced German teenager, who discovered that there's actually a pretty damn good chance of a significant portion of North America and Europe being destroyed within the next 40 years.
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...1 in 450?!?!!! That's better odds than Larry Moore saying something non-goobery within the next 40 years.
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.
And we're not talking about some pea-sized piece of space granite, here.
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.So nice going NASA. I don't suppose you have any ideas on what to do to avoid the mass calamity.
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.
If you do, let's run them by the German grade school students for verification, mmmkay? You NASA guys can just keep looking for Klingons near Uranus.
tagged: NASA, asteroid, impact, Apophis, German, Klingons, Uranus, Michael Bolton, Nico Marquardt
No, no, no. Totally didn't happen. If you don't believe me, go check out Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy.com
ReplyDeletehttp://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2008/04/16/no-a-13-year-old-boy-did-not-correct-nasa/
or go look read Cosmos4U
http://cosmos4u.blogspot.com/2008/04/apophis-risk-not-increased-science-fair.html
There is also a thread about it on Fark
http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=3540961
In a nutshell, this kid thought that NASA failed to take into account the possibility of the asteroid 2004 MN4 (a.k.a. Apophis) could strike a geosync satellite in it's 2029 close approach, thereby altering it's orbit and causing a collision on it's second close pass in 2036.
"Well, here's what NASA's NEO (Near Earth Orbit) guru Don Yeomans told this blog (Cosmos4U) yesterday: "We have not corresponded with this young man and this story is absurd, a hoax or both. During its 2029 Earth close approach, Apophis will approach the Earth to about 38,900 km, well inside the geosynchronous distance at 42,240 km. However, the asteroid will cross the equatorial belt at a distance of 51,000 km - well outside the geosynchronous distance. Since the uncertainty on Apophis' position during the Earth close approach is about 1500 km, Apophis cannot approach an Earth satellite. Apophis will not cross the moon's orbital plane at the Moon's orbital distance so it cannot approach the moon either."
Don't you be dissin on my homies at NASA. They knows they shit. Don't make me open a can of Sponge Worthy on yo ass. Little German boy best be goose-steppin' his cocky little ass back to Peenemunde.
so much for making this blog my sole source of the doomsday info.
ReplyDeleteDoes it matter? I'll be dead by then.
ReplyDeleteCheers.