Note : This story has been ported from another platform
which I used earlier.
Date : Nov, 2017
This news shows why it is important to not blindly believe science news, claims, interpretation or conclusions and instead see the real data yourself and understand how the final conclusion was reached and what observation or evidence supports it. And i firmly believe that fantastic claims need fantastic evidence too, not sketchy evidence.
In the following 3 links of the same news, notice the huge difference in the language and how the uncertainty of the scientists got diluted in ESO press release and became a certainty in the media news.
1) Original research paper of scientists, revealing their uncertainty about dust belts
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1735/eso1735a.pdf
2) ESO's tabloid grade press release diluted all uncertainties in just 1 day !
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1735/
3) And in media articles reporting this story, the uncertainty became a certainty, & got reported as a sensational fact, when it is clearly not even close to it. Hilarious :-)
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/proxima-centauri-cold-dust-belt-found-around-nearest-star-our-solar-system- 1645969
Often observation might be correct but conclusion horribly wrong. The ancient conclusion about sun and planets revolving around earth was wrong despite correct observations in the sky.
Dust rings/belts are a deliberate misinterpretation, a case of space art being peddled as science !
This 2017 news relies on what the ALMA radio telescope in Chile saw. But that crucial evidence was conveniently omitted from ESO's press release (link 2 above) as well as their YouTube video.
Below is what the radio telescope saw : No rings or belts anywhere, just patches of radio emission around the star !
How The News Started
In the following 3 links of the same news, notice the huge difference in the language and how the uncertainty of the scientists got diluted in ESO press release and became a certainty in the media news.
1) Original research paper of scientists, revealing their uncertainty about dust belts
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1735/eso1735a.pdf
2) ESO's tabloid grade press release diluted all uncertainties in just 1 day !
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1735/
3) And in media articles reporting this story, the uncertainty became a certainty, & got reported as a sensational fact, when it is clearly not even close to it. Hilarious :-)
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/proxima-centauri-cold-dust-belt-found-around-nearest-star-our-solar-system- 1645969
Often observation might be correct but conclusion horribly wrong. The ancient conclusion about sun and planets revolving around earth was wrong despite correct observations in the sky.
The Facts
Dust rings/belts are a deliberate misinterpretation, a case of space art being peddled as science !
This 2017 news relies on what the ALMA radio telescope in Chile saw. But that crucial evidence was conveniently omitted from ESO's press release (link 2 above) as well as their YouTube video.
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA radio telescope)
Credit : The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)
Below is what the radio telescope saw : No rings or belts anywhere, just patches of radio emission around the star !
That dotted ellipse is a silly interpretation and sees things that are nonexistent. There is no evidence of such a dust ring as of now, in the visible spectrum.
Science reporting is so bad these days that various magazines/channels no longer question anything & blindly accept everything vomited to them. They are too busy competing against each other as to who can come up with the most sensational headline & artwork to get more viewership.
By the time i see the news & point out the problem areas, many in the public are already convinced of the "facts" reported by the media and I end up looking like a conspiracy theorist :-)
My twitter thread :
Feel free to comment, agree / disagree
& even post links relevant to the topic.
***
No comments:
Post a Comment