A student pointed out a mistake in NASA data

Recently, an English student contacted NASA to point out a mistake in the data recorded on ISS (International Space Station). Later, the student received a thank you from the US space agency.

That talented young man is Miles Soloman , only 17 years old and a student of Tapton School in Sheffield. Soloman is working on the TimPix project - a project that allows British students to access data recorded by radiation detectors. These data are on a six-month stay of British astronaut Tim Peake on ISS.

Among other projects, Peake participated in a research program to assess the impact of cosmic radiation on humans. Radiation on the ISS is monitored with a Timepix detector shaped like a USB. It is plugged into the computer and regularly sends data to Earth.

Soloman and other students made Timepix measurements in a giant Excel worksheet. This spreadsheet allows them to practice analyzing actual scientific information data. However, when arranging the data according to the energy level, Soloman noticed something odd.

"Immediately, I scrolled down to the bottom of the list and went to places with the lowest energy measurement units. I found that there was no energy, no radiation. On the spreadsheet, -1, I thought: We can't have negative energy, and then we realized it was a mistake , " Soloman told a BBC Radio 4 program.

Soloman and his physics teacher, James O'Neill, immediately jumped in and immediately sent an error message to NASA.

Inside the International Space Station.(Photo: NASA).

As Soloman explained to BBC Radio, researchers at NASA responded that they had detected the error. But the experts here think these errors happen only once or twice a year. They were wrong."We found this error occurred many times a day , " Soloman said.

However, physicist Lawrence Pinsky of the University of Houston, who participated in the TimPix project and also a partner of the radiation monitoring project on ISS, said: "They think they have fixed this mistake. The problem is that some raw data conversion algorithms have been mitigated, and so when doing the conversion, the result is a negative number. "

In the BBC World program, host Martha Kearney questioned Lawrence Pinsky: Will NASA be embarrassed when a boy who is a student points out errors in his data set ? Pinsky answered that he did not think so.

He said: "We appreciate this contribution rather than feel embarrassed. The fact that students really participate in these important projects means that in the future, there is a lot of potential they will play. There are similar errors ".

TimPix project is one of many initiatives organized by IRIS (Research Institute at school). This is a UK-based charity, providing opportunities for students and teachers to properly study science at school.

IRIS has partnered with organizations such as CERN, NASA, Wellcome Trust, and Royal Horticultural Society to bring real science projects into the classroom and encourage children to pursue their passion. love science.

"We are exploiting the potential of young, fresh minds and what they can do. As far as I think, we can set up the largest research groups across the country from students. " said Soloman's teacher, O'Neill.

In addition to analyzing radiation exposure on ISS, students can also study genetics of cardiovascular disease, analyze Mars's atmosphere, participate in experiments with large particle accelerators ( Large Hadron Collider) and look for signs of a magnetic monopole.

Even a project that is about to start will allow students to build a copy of a large particle accelerator in Minecraft. Students will be partnered with the Oxford University Physics Team.

At least for Miles Soloman, IRIS certainly gave him the inspiration to pursue science more passionately. Soloman urgently explained that he did not try to be better than NASA researchers when he pointed out the error in the data.

"I am not trying to prove NASA wrong, I am not trying to say that I am better, because obviously I am not - they are NASA. I want to work with them and learn from them ," Soloman said. .