This is one of those stories that makes you think that just maybe all those scientist are exaggerating and the end might be closer then we think. (insert dramatic music here)
"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 organization, the European Space Agency (ESA), that the young whizz kid had got it right."
German schoolboy, 13, corrects NASA's asteroid figures--Yahoo NEWS