So when nine-year-old Daniel Smith read in a Telegraph astronomy guide last month that Neptune, the most distant of the eight planets, was a mere 4.5 million km from our closest star he instantly recognised that something didn't add up. <\/p>\n
A little sleuthing around the relative location of the other planets soon confirmed his suspicion and brought about an explanation an unfortunate typo by the Daily Telegraph. <\/p>\n
Our guide, one of two astronomy booklets released last month, should in fact have said 4.5 billion miles, rather than million a fact which Daniel picked up but several pairs of grown-up eyes did not. <\/p>\n
Daniel, who lives in New Zealand with his family, explained his reasoning in a letter to his grandfather Don Smith, a Telegraph reader from Felixstowe, Suffolk, who had sent him the books as a present. <\/p>\n
He wrote: \"Dear grandad, I really liked the solar system books you got us. They were very interesting! But I noticed a mistake. <\/p>\n
\"It said Neptune was 4.5 million km when mercury was 57.9 million km. I found the problem by looking at the other planets. It turns out that Neptune was supposed to say 4.5 billion km from the Sun.\" <\/p>\n
He signed off the letter \"Love, Daniel,\" adding: \"PS, give grandma a kiss from me!\" <\/p>\n
Mr Smith forwarded the note on to the Telegraph noting how impressed he was that a child had digested the \"quite intelligent\" booklets so thoroughly that he picked up on the miscalculation. <\/p>\n
We quite agree, and would like to thank Daniel for reading our booklets so thoroughly. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Read the original post:<\/p>\n
Astronomy mistake picked up by nine-year-old<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So when nine-year-old Daniel Smith read in a Telegraph astronomy guide last month that Neptune, the most distant of the eight planets, was a mere 4.5 million km from our closest star he instantly recognised that something didn't add up. A little sleuthing around the relative location of the other planets soon confirmed his suspicion and brought about an explanation an unfortunate typo by the Daily Telegraph. Continue reading