Another prime example of how the media loves to jump on the bandwagon without doing much research.
Supposedly, a 13 year old German boy calculated that there is a 1-in-450 chance of Apophis, an asteroid, hitting Earth in 2036, as opposed to NASA's 1-in-45,000. Supposedly, NASA has corresponded with this boy and has revised their calculations because he was right.
Turns out, it wasn't true.
It's a sad case of very bad sensational journalism. I mean, how hard is it to pick up a phone and call NASA to verify these claims??? Just shows how the media would do anything to sell a story. We all love these David and Goliath stories, of how a 13 year old boy trumps nerdy scientists and big bad government, but the truth is, it doesn't really happen.
Even worse, they're acting like this was a prediction of a doomsday scenario. Sure 1-in-450 sounds so scary compared to 1-in-45,000, but if your doctor told you that you only have a 1-in-450 chance of living past tomorrow, would you jump for joy? 1-in-450 translates to 0.002%! That's a tiny TINY fraction! It's the same as the percentage of effort used by the media to check the veracity of their reports.
Supposedly, a 13 year old German boy calculated that there is a 1-in-450 chance of Apophis, an asteroid, hitting Earth in 2036, as opposed to NASA's 1-in-45,000. Supposedly, NASA has corresponded with this boy and has revised their calculations because he was right.
Turns out, it wasn't true.
It's a sad case of very bad sensational journalism. I mean, how hard is it to pick up a phone and call NASA to verify these claims??? Just shows how the media would do anything to sell a story. We all love these David and Goliath stories, of how a 13 year old boy trumps nerdy scientists and big bad government, but the truth is, it doesn't really happen.
Even worse, they're acting like this was a prediction of a doomsday scenario. Sure 1-in-450 sounds so scary compared to 1-in-45,000, but if your doctor told you that you only have a 1-in-450 chance of living past tomorrow, would you jump for joy? 1-in-450 translates to 0.002%! That's a tiny TINY fraction! It's the same as the percentage of effort used by the media to check the veracity of their reports.
