There is news that is mere diversion – celebrity canoodling, fuzzy kits in a fox den or eaglets in a tall tree, or YouTube videos of a kid falling down. Also one often gets news that is historic, consequential, and serious. News agencies properly pay them both attention. Often we get stories that mix these and other of news qualities.
Today we got a burst of news from NASA and its space telescope's users, chiefly in the UK. It is – mostly – classic diversion. To be sure, most astronomy news is of the gee-whiz variety that won't make a whit of difference to practical existence. But the full edifice of astronomical discovery is essential to modern mankind's sense of place in the universe. And much astronomy news does move this interconnected science forward a notch.
Today's sampling stems from discovery that a heavily-studied exoplanet already in the log books for years – a bloated thing with an atmosphere thousands of degrees hot zipping close around its star every few days – is almost certainly a deep blue. It is quite wondrous, as is a fabulous sunset. And this is new – not just the blue, but to get an exo-planet's color so convincingly. Take a look at Grist below if you wish to check the starting material (plus the journal paper) beyond which several agencies did not bother to go, the NASA and universities of Exeter and Oxford press releases. They say that among other things inferred but unproven about this place called HD 189733b is that it may have drops of molten glass, or maybe solid as well, high in its atmosphere blowing along at thousands of miles per hour. Or, blowing sideways as the press officers have it. Spectroscopic analysis of the system's colors when the planet is visible next to the star compared with when hidden behind it reveal, by elimination, the planet's dominant color. Starlight scattering and being selectively absorbed while passing through the glassy, silicate and sodium-rich, rock-derived hot rain and sleet could be behind the hue. NASA or ESA or somebody also commissioned a video, nearly all make-believe in its portrayal. The still image above is part of it. Blue, sure, but the artist throws in swirls and streamers of stuff in the air of this unlivable world. Yowza, what nearly meaningless but enticing bait for reporters and editors.
As an old-time gee-whiz science reporter, I've no deep quarrel with sticking just to the wow-there's-another-blue-world in this crazy galaxy of ours angle. But it's be good to get a little bit serious if one has the room to do so.
One starts with better things, something that benefits from journalistic initiative. Here is one example from a stalwart of the trade:
- USA Today – Dan Vergano : Deep Blue Planet discovery differs from Earth ; While much of the coverage is single-dimensionally reliant on press releases or perhaps other spoon-fed info plus the paper, Vergano calls an outsider. And that astronomer, Alan Boss, provides dimension to the story that many readers will appreciate. In itself, he says, the work is "by no means a giant step forward, but a nice observation.." Boss further adds that "It is amazing to think that we can now make measurements that tell us something about the cloud cover on distant planets." This is the last graf and a fine way to close.
Other Stories:
- Los Angeles Times – Amy Hubbard: Hubble telescope spies cobalt blue planet: it's a 'hot Jupiter ; Only the NASA press release gets citation in this wide-eyed, enthusiastic item. Its strength is to pose the blue planet as illustration that while the old Hubble is to retire soon, it is still providing thrilling results.
- NBC News – Alan Boyle: Bizarro in blue: Alien planet's color detected for the first time ; Careful job by an ace science reporter. he info does not appear to go significantly beyond the sources and detail in press releases and the paper. Boyle did check the story out for himself, shown by quote credited to email from one of the authors. He also chased down the full text version of the journal article, thank you very much, now part of Grist below.
- CBC News (Canada) Planet orbiting nearby star is Earthly blue ; Not much more than a fat caption, but comments include a back and forth on the headline, including remarks by a staffer. Even so, "Earthly" implies it is not just blue, but blue in some way reminiscent of why our world is blue. But there is little other than blueness makes this planet resemble ours.
- Space.com – Miriam Kramer: Strange Blue World: Alien Planet's True Color Revealed, a First; Little things matter when it comes to sticking close to truth. For instance the lede: "Call it the deep blue dot." That's a deft contrast to Earth, Sagan's pale blue dot. So much more insightful, not to mention smoother, than the CBC hed just taken to task in previous, uh, dot for equating the colors. Piece is a shorty, with no sign of and perhaps no room for enterprise reporting.
- LiveScience – Jeanna Bryner: Newfound Alien Planet is Blue! ; This planet was reported (per Wikipedia) Oct. 5, 2005. That's not so long ago but it is not so newfound as alien planet listings go. A shorty with too little other info for critique.
- The Atlantic – Megan Garber: For the First Time, Astronomers Have determined the Color of an Exoplanet; Longer than most, quite exuberant, and it has the right narrative arc. It starts briefly with the growing catalog of exo planets about which we know many masses, orbits, and other specs but not colors until now with any certainty. As far as one can tell, all quotes (some indirectly credited via link) derive from press releases. Readers get links to Wikipedia entries to get more info on many of the terms in the story. I am unsure what journalism school professors would say about that in a story written for a grade. Anybody out there want to chime in via comment?
- Basic Space/ Scientific American blogs – Kelly Oakes: Exoplanet colour confirmed for first time: it's blue, but not pale — and nothing like Earth; Bingo on headline accuracy. Spelling hints and author minibio confirms: she's a Brit. It's a shorty. For a blog at Sci Am by a writer with a degree in physics, this is disappointing. Why bother if not aiming to add some value to what the press release handouts are telling everybody?
- Telegraph (UK) Nick Collins: Azure blue planet identified by Hubble ; Mere rewrite toss-off. Besides, "azure" means the color of the bright, cloudless sky – our sky. Other stories, including that with previous bullet, say the alien planet in question is a notably deeper hue than that we see on a sunny day. Or maybe we're a different color from space? So picky I am. Plus, I just noted the subhed. That says it is a deep cobalt blue. Cobalt, azure, all th' same at deadline, eh?
- Guardian (UK) Ian Sample: Alien 'deep blue' planet discovered ; Nice job of knitting it up, with extensive quotes from one of the primary authors that do not, far as I can tell at full sprint, come off the press releases. But nothing visible from outside experts saying ooh!, boo!, or anything else.
- New Scientist/Astrophile blog – Jacob Aron: Searing hot exoplanet is an unearthly blue ; Pretty good except this, for another, simultaneously says the color is azure but is nothing like Earth's blue. Sigh. Etymology, where art thou?
- ScienceNOW – Sid Perkins: A Blue Alien World ; It's a 'science shot' which at Science Magazine's outlet means a very brief item. He too calls it an azure blue, a beautiful one. But does not then declare it distinctly different from Earth in color. And while many, many reporters picked up, from press release, that the glassy silicate rain on the planet blows sideways, Perkins wisely leaves it implicit. If the wind is blowing at several thousand mph and it is raining, duh.
- could go on, apologies about missing good ones that surely I did. Let us know…
One other thing: The press releases and the paper say the winds and composition are all suppositions, leaving room for lots of maybe. Reporters and headlines interpret a suspected sideways rain of glass as meaning that is a fact. Science in Mass Media: The place where most caveats go to die. It IS hard to leave them in.
Grist for the Mill: NASA Press Release ; University of Exeter Press Release ; University of Oxford blog/press release ; European Space Agency Press Release with video, images ; Astrophysical Journal Letters abstract ; Full Paper ;
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