quick, clean up that space trash before it kills us

AFP reports That Nico Marquardt , a 13 yr old German schoolboy has upgraded the risk of the Apophis asteroid colliding with earth from NASA’s 1:45,000 to 1:450. Explanation? Nico’s calculations account for the risk of the death star being diverted by space junk.

BERLIN (AFP) — 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.

I don’t think I’ll sleep very well for the next 21 years. Somebody get Bruce Willis on the phone.