Child prodigy explains mysteries of the universe

A schoolboy from Russia's southern Krasnodar Region has rocked the world of science with his findings in astronomy. Andrey Khlopin is only ten years old but is already listed twice in the Guinness Book of Records.

It was a meteorite falling near his village in the Krasnodar Region that captured the imagination of the then four-year-old Andrey and he's been hooked on astronomy ever since.

At the age of nine the child prodigy disproved a 150-year-old theory that explained the creation of the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

“The scientists used to have two theories. According to one, it was a planet. The other one stated that it was an unformed planet, just some space debris. But my theory shows that it was a planet that had several satellites,” said schoolboy Andrey Khlopin.

His friends call him ‘star-boy’ - but to his father, a military pilot, he's just an ordinary child, whose talents need to be developed.

“Time will tell whether he becomes a scientist, an Academic or a Nobel Prize laureate. What’s important to me as his father is that he'll grow up to be a real man and a man of honour,” said Andrey Khlopin’s father.

It usually takes Andrey around 15 minutes to do his homework. Then he prepares to give his next lecture.

The Kuban State University can't legally appoint the boy as a teacher, so they pay him 1,500 rubles - a grant that only the best students receive.

The boy says that one day he'll become an astronaut or a test-pilot like his father. But for now, he's happy constructing small rockets and launching them from his schoolyard.

[link to www.russiatoday.ru]