Nico Marquardt

Last updated
Nico Marquardt
Member of the Potsdam Parliament
Assumed office
25 May 2014
Personal details
Born (1994-05-24) 24 May 1994 (age 29)
Potsdam, Germany
Political party Social Democratic Party of Germany
EducationHumboldt High School, Potsdam
OccupationPolitician, non-executive director, consultant
Signature Signature of Nico Marquardt.png
Website Official website

Nico Marquardt (born May 24, 1994, in Potsdam) is a German politician, non-executive director and consultant. [1] At the age of 13, he became internationally known with his astronomy research work about the near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis.

Contents

Life

Early life

Nico Marquardt was born in Potsdam, Germany as the son of Oberstleutnant (commissioned officer) Harald Broh and nurse Apolonia Marquardt and attended the Humboldt High School in Potsdam. [2]

Astronomy

In April 2008, at the age of 13, he took part in the competition Jugend forscht with his research paper The Killer Asteroid 99942 Apophis, in which he calculated the probability for the asteroid Apophis to collide with a geosynchronous satellite and the consequences of this event to the likelihood of an Earth collision. On the day of the award Marquardt was interviewed by German newspaper Bild which published an article stating a 100-times higher probability of an Earth-collision in the year 2036 than Marquardt calculated. [3] Afterwards, nearly all international press reported the news with false data caused by the review from Bild even though Marquardt denied it. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] Marquardt used this global attention and ever since became one of the globally most influential Twitter users in science. [11]

The astronomer Fred Watson said that "Marquardt has done a marvellous job. A hundred years ago people used logarithms and hand-calculators and slide rules to work out asteroid orbits. But it says a lot for the world that we live in that a 13 year-old schoolboy can download the right software to do the job and actually find errors in NASA's work. It is quite extraordinary." [12]

Career

From 2013 to 2019 Marquardt acted as the Global Advisor for Social Media at Mars One. [13] [14] Since 2013 he is CEO of the consulting firm Rabbit. [15] As of August 2014 Marquardt has been elected as non-executive director of the local energy and water service company EWP [16] and also as member of the supervisory board for the hospital Forst. [17] Marquardt co-hosts the podcast Exponential Talk, where he discusses the implications of digital transformation and accelerating change with personalities, including Nobel laureates such as Klaus Hasselmann. [18]

Political career

During his final year in high school, Marquardt ran for office in Potsdam as a candidate for the Social Democratic Party of Germany and won. This made Marquardt the youngest elected politician of any state capital in Germany. [19] In November 2015 Marquardt filed criminal charges against the far-right political party Der Dritte Weg (German for "The Third Path") in Germany on grounds of incitement to hatred. [20] [21] In the 2019 elections, he was re-elected and has since served as the deputy chairman of the Committee of Participation, Transparency and Digitalisation and as a member of the Culture Committee. [22] Marquardt has been the chairman of the Digitalization Council of the state capital Potsdam since 2022. [23]

Awards

Marquardt won the first prize at the German competition Jugend forscht, got the Special Honor from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Special Award of the German Aerospace Center. [24]

Related Research Articles

The Torino scale is a method for categorizing the impact hazard associated with near-Earth objects (NEOs) such as asteroids and comets. It is intended as a communication tool for astronomers and the public to assess the seriousness of collision predictions, by combining probability statistics and known kinetic damage potentials into a single threat value. The Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale is a similar, but more complex scale.

2029 (MMXXIX) will be a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2029th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 29th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 10th and last year of the 2020s decade.

The Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale is a logarithmic scale used by astronomers to rate the potential hazard of impact of a near-Earth object (NEO). It combines two types of data—probability of impact and estimated kinetic yield—into a single "hazard" value. A rating of 0 means the hazard is equivalent to the background hazard. A rating of +2 would indicate the hazard is 100 times as great as a random background event. Scale values less than −2 reflect events for which there are no likely consequences, while Palermo Scale values between −2 and 0 indicate situations that merit careful monitoring. A similar but less complex scale is the Torino Scale, which is used for simpler descriptions in the non-scientific media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radar astronomy</span> Observing nearby astronomical objects by analyzing reflected microwaves

Radar astronomy is a technique of observing nearby astronomical objects by reflecting radio waves or microwaves off target objects and analyzing their reflections. Radar astronomy differs from radio astronomy in that the latter is a passive observation and the former an active one. Radar systems have been conducted for six decades applied to a wide range of Solar System studies. The radar transmission may either be pulsed or continuous. The strength of the radar return signal is proportional to the inverse fourth-power of the distance. Upgraded facilities, increased transceiver power, and improved apparatus have increased observational opportunities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven J. Ostro</span>

Steven Jeffrey Ostro was an American scientist specializing in radar astronomy. He worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Ostro led radar observations of numerous asteroids, as well as the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn's rings, and Mars and its satellites. As of May 2008, Ostro and his collaborators had detected 222 near-Earth asteroids and 118 main belt objects with radar.

(433953) 1997 XR2 is a sub-kilometer sized asteroid, classified as near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo group. It was discovered on 4 December 1997, by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program at Lincoln Laboratory's Experimental Test Site near Socorro, New Mexico, in the United States.

David James Tholen is an American astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaiʻi. He holds a 1984 PhD from the University of Arizona, and specializes in planetary and Solar System astronomy. He is a discoverer of minor planets and known for the Tholen spectral classification scheme used on asteroids.

<span class="nowrap">2000 SG<sub>344</sub></span> Small risk–listed near-Earth asteroid

2000 SG344 is a small Aten asteroid first observed in 2000. It is assumed to have a diameter of approximately 37 meters (120 feet) – or roughly twice that of the Chelyabinsk meteor – and an assumed mass of 7.1×107 kg (71,000 tonnes), but the size is only known within about a factor 2. It is the largest object known to have a better than 1/1000 chance (0.1%) of impacting Earth and has the fourth highest cumulative Palermo rating at −2.79. The next good chance to observe the object will be in May 2028 when it passes 0.02 AU (3,000,000 km; 1,900,000 mi) from Earth.

99942 Apophis (provisional designation 2004 MN4) is a near-Earth asteroid and a potentially hazardous object with a diameter of 370 metres (1,210 feet) that caused a brief period of concern in December 2004 when initial observations indicated a probability up to 2.7% that it would hit Earth on April 13, 2029. Additional observations provided improved predictions that eliminated the possibility of an impact on Earth in 2029. Until 2006, a small possibility nevertheless remained that, during its 2029 close encounter with Earth, Apophis would pass through a gravitational keyhole of no more than about 800 kilometres (500 mi) in diameter, which would have set up a future impact exactly seven years later on April 13, 2036. This possibility kept it at Level 1 on the Torino impact hazard scale until August 2006, when the probability that Apophis would pass through the keyhole was determined to be very small and Apophis's rating on the Torino scale was lowered to zero. By 2008, the keyhole had been determined to be less than 1 km wide. During the short time when it had been of greatest concern, Apophis set the record for highest rating ever on the Torino scale, reaching level 4 on December 27, 2004.

Don Quijote is a past space mission concept that has been studied from 2005 until 2007 by the European Space Agency, and which would investigate the effects of crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid to test whether a spacecraft could successfully deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. The orbiter was designed to last for seven years. The mission did not proceed beyond initial studies.

(144898) 2004 VD17 (provisional designation 2004 VD17) is a sub-kilometer asteroid, classified as near-Earth object of the Apollo group once thought to have a low probability of impacting Earth on 4 May 2102. It reached a Torino Scale rating of 2 and a Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale rating of -0.25. With an observation arc of 17 years it is known that closest Earth approach will occur two days earlier on 2 May 2102 at a distance of about 5.5 million km.

<span class="nowrap">2007 VK<sub>184</sub></span>

2007 VK184 is a sub-kilometer asteroid, classified as a near-Earth object of the Apollo group, and estimated to be approximately 130 meters (430 ft) in diameter. It was listed on the Sentry Risk Table with a Torino Scale rating of 1 for a potential impactor in June 2048. It was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 28 March 2014.

2007 WD5 is an Apollo asteroid some 50 m (160 ft) in diameter and a Mars-crosser asteroid first observed on 20 November 2007, by Andrea Boattini of the Catalina Sky Survey. Early observations of 2007 WD5 caused excitement amongst the scientific community when it was estimated as having as high as a 1 in 25 chance of colliding with Mars on 30 January 2008. However, by 9 January 2008, additional observations allowed NASA's Near Earth Object Program (NEOP) to reduce the uncertainty region resulting in only a 1-in-10,000 chance of impact. 2007 WD5 most likely passed Mars at a distance of 6.5 Mars radii. Due to this relatively small distance and the uncertainty level of the prior observations, the gravitational effects of Mars on its trajectory are unknown and, according to Steven Chesley of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Near-Earth Object program, 2007 WD5 is currently considered 'lost' (see lost asteroids).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minimum orbit intersection distance</span> Measure of close approach or collision risk in astronomy

Minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) is a measure used in astronomy to assess potential close approaches and collision risks between astronomical objects. It is defined as the distance between the closest points of the osculating orbits of two bodies. Of greatest interest is the risk of a collision with Earth. Earth MOID is often listed on comet and asteroid databases such as the JPL Small-Body Database. MOID values are also defined with respect to other bodies as well: Jupiter MOID, Venus MOID and so on.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OSIRIS-REx</span> NASA sample return mission, launched in 2016

OSIRIS-REx was a NASA asteroid-study and sample-return mission that visited and collected samples from 101955 Bennu, a carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid. The material, returned in September 2023, is expected to enable scientists to learn more about the formation and evolution of the Solar System, its initial stages of planet formation, and the source of organic compounds that led to the formation of life on Earth. Following the completion of the primary OSIRIS-REx mission, the spacecraft is planned to conduct a flyby of asteroid 99942 Apophis, now as OSIRIS-APEX.

(85640) 1998 OX4 (provisional designation 1998 OX4) is a sub-kilometer asteroid, classified as near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo group.

References

  1. ↑ "Website of the Social Democratic Party". Archived from the original on 2015-11-09. Retrieved 2015-10-27.
  2. ↑ Biography of Nico Marquardt (retrieved 27. October 2015)
  3. ↑ "Ich habe den Weltuntergang ausgerechnet". Bild . Retrieved 2015-03-27.
  4. ↑ "NASA refutes story of boy who predicted asteroid collision". Radio-Canada. 16 April 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  5. ↑ "Ragazzino calcola la fine del mondo". Corriere della Sera. 17 April 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  6. ↑ "Niño alemán corrige cálculos a la NASA". CNN. 16 April 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  7. ↑ "13-year-old corrects NASA's asteroid figures". China Daily. 16 April 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  8. ↑ "Un petit génie allemand met la NASA en échec". RTL (French radio). 16 April 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  9. ↑ "NASA says German whiz-kid got it wrong". ABC. 17 April 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  10. ↑ "Schoolboy corrects NASA 'killer asteroid' maths'". The Age. 16 April 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  11. ↑ Nico Marquardt on Twitter (retrieved 27. October 2015)
  12. ↑ "Prof. Fred Watson about Marquardt". itNews. 17 April 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  13. ↑ Global Advisor Social Media Mars One (retrieved 27. October 2015)
  14. ↑ Global Advisor Mars One (retrieved 5. February 2024)
  15. ↑ CEO Rabbit Consulting Group (retrieved 5. February 2024)
  16. ↑ Non-executive director energy company EWP (retrieved 27. October 2015) Archived 2015-11-09 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ↑ Member of the supervisory board hospital Forst (retrieved 5. February 2024)
  18. ↑ Podcast Exponential Talk (retrieved 5. February 2024)
  19. ↑ Nico Marquardt ist jüngster Stadtverordneter, at PNN, 28. Mai 2015 (retrieved 27. October 2015)
  20. ↑ "SPD-Stadtverordneter aus Potsdam zeigt rechtsextremem Parteivorsitzenden an". Blickpunkt. 5 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  21. ↑ "SPD-Mann zeigt Neonazis an". MAZ. 5 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  22. ↑ Deputy Chairman Digital Committee (retrieved 5 February 2024)
  23. ↑ Nico Marquardt ist seit 2022 Vorsitzender des Digitalisierungsrates der Landeshauptstadt Potsdam (retrieved 5. February 2024)
  24. ↑ Jugend forscht: Sonderpreis für Nico Marquardt, at PNN, 8. April 2008 (retrieved 27. October 2015)

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