Inaccuracy in reporting astronomy and science Options

[AndyG]

Sounds like their source material dates back to '65 or so.

Andy

[jasedm]

According to this article, Eros will be 'hurtling past' Earth on Tuesday next week.

Closest approach will actually be ~27 million km.

[ElkGroveDan]

Only 27 million miles! Why that's nearly 3/4 of the distance that the planet Venus "hurtles" past Earth every now and then! I hope someone is also working on a plan to blast Venus into tiny pieces.

[centsworth_II]

According to this article, Eros will be 'hurtling past' Earth on Tuesday next week.

That should be: "According to this headline..."

The article itself states, "...a chunk of rock 400 times the City of London is set to hurtle closer than a rock of its size has in a very long time." I take this to be a factual statement albeit vividly expressed.

(Sorry, no offense meant to the poster, but one of my pet peeves is condemning an article for language used in the headline.)

[jasedm]

None taken!

It's a fair point, the body text does qualify the headline somewhat, it just made me smile. Eros will be 'hurtling past' Earth in a similar way to how I'll be 'hurtling past' the Eiffel tower later this week when I drive up the motorway into London

[Astro0]

The Washington Post has announced that MSL has landed successfully.

Phew! What a relief!................WAIT! WHAT?!

Yep, they had even prepared a video for it, which has now been taken offline.

NASA's Curiosity Rover Successfully Touches Down On Mars
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/hea...810f_video.html

[gndonald]

Strange reporting in one online success announcement:

In the final moments, the spacecraft accelerated with the pull of gravity as it neared Mars's atmosphere, making a fiery entry at a speed of 21,240km per hour and then slowing down with the help of a supersonic parachute.

After that, an elaborate sky crane powered by rocket blasters kicked in, and the rover was lowered down by nylon tethers, apparently landing upright on all six wheels.

(Emphasis mine)

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8511758/n...s-rover-on-mars

[nprev]

I wouldn't call it inaccurate. In fact, that's not bad at all from a media outlet that (I assume) is not primarily presented in the English language.

[centsworth_II]

I wouldn't call it inaccurate....

That was my first impression, until I Googled rocket blaster and discovered that they are popular toys powered by air. I can see how the use of that term could stand out as a humorous mistake to someone familiar with the toy.

[nprev]

Oh, this is beautiful. Just heard a local newscaster on NBC Los Angeles do a story on MSL describing the FSW upgrade.

Went fine, until he said something like 'Oh, by the way! The average celphone on Earth has a faster processor than Curiosity! The reason why is that technology on Earth has been advancing as Curiosity traveled 154 million miles to Mars!'

Gonna call the station and complain; this was just egregious. Considering that this is one of the local stations for Pasadena & therefore JPL, I hope I won't be the only one.

[stevesliva]

Went off the rails with "the reason why..."

[MahFL]

Did anyone else have the unfortuneate experience of reading this article ?

MSL/MAHLI.

[Juramike]

Did anyone else have the unfortuneate experience of reading this article ?

MSL/MAHLI.

Ooof! The comments thread gallery agrees.

[dvandorn]

Egads! I mean, I know there is a movement out there to try and put down anyone with intelligence and an education (for reasons forum rules won't let me get into), but to let these kinds of comments about people smart enough to land spacecraft on other planets into media reporting on the space program is just plain wrong.

Can you imagine if CBS News, in 1969, felt it had to "counter-balance" Walter Cronkite's enthusiastic reporting on the space program with Ricky Redneck's comments on how we shouldn't let these gul-durned eggheads control everything?

I never thought the future would really bring us into the age of the Marching Morons. I'm disappointed to see I was wrong. Which does bring up the concept of using the space program to directly attack the problem -- you know, let everyone know about all those wonderful colonization opportunities on Venus, for example...

-the other Doug

[RoverDriver]

I see people against space exploration fundamentally divided into two groups: a) people who have a different agenda, b ) people who do not understand space exploration. I view group b ) as the equivalent of an "electrical impedance matching" problem. That is, I need to find a common ground so that I can bring space exploration to their area of interest. I rarely succeed in doing so, but in those rare moments where I am successful I know I have reduced group b ) and removed power to group a).

Paolo