Inaccuracy in reporting astronomy and science Options

[As old as Voyage...]

I have just watched the BBC's report on the newly created 3D map of dark matter using Hubble data; and it made my heart sink.

I applaud the BBC for giving airtime to such discoveries, but for such a respected organisation their research was awful.

It's no wonder the vast majority of people are either bewildered or disinterested the the universe as a whole when the facts they are given are completely wrong.

It's a shame that tonight 60 million or so people in the UK and many other people around the world were told Hubble shone a beam of light out into the depths of the universe and studied how it was bent by the gravity of dark matter billions of light years away!

And this was a report from the BBCs science correspondant!

I remain downhearted that perhaps the most important story of the week was reported in such a shoddy manner.

Does anyone else feel space is being let down by TV coverage?

[Stu]

At first glance this is quite an amusing subject, I know, but for us "community astronomers" the whole star-naming thing is a nightmare, and worse than that it actually causes some people quite a lot of hurt.

Several large national retailers were offering "Name A Star" gift boxes for Christmas presents this year in the UK, and I had - as usual - a dozen or so phone calls, or conversations with people in the street or at work, with people either asking me if they should name a star after a loved one, or telling me they'd already bought one for someone, and I had to tell them that, as lovely an idea as this is, it is a total waste of money, because no-one has the right to offer star names for sale. It's not illegal, but I could set myself up in business and charge people to have a blade of grass by Kendal Castle or a grain of sand on Arnside beach named after them or a loved one and it would be just as "official" as offering to name a star for them. Some people take this news in their stride, and just decide not to go ahead with the present and buy a book token or something, others get angry that they might have been conned. The ones who have already "bought a star" are usually either gutted or angry, or both.

But worse are the phone calls I get from people at other times of the year from people who want to know if I can come around to where they live and show them, and/or their family, the star they have had named after someone who's died. I've had children calling asking me to show them where the star they named after their mother or father is, grandparents asking where the star is they've named after a dead grandchild, husbands and wives wanting to see the star named after their deceased partner, it's just awful to have to tell them that... well, to have to tell them the truth.

This really annoys me, and has done for years, because people buy these "stars" in good faith, often for a loved one as a romantic gift, thinking they can take them outside on a clear night and, standing there arm in arm or hand in hand, show them "their star". That’s not possible because the stars on offer are all far, far below naked eye visibility. Other people “buy star names” in memory of someone who's died, thinking it will somehow immortalise them. It doesn't; that star would only bear the buyer’s chosen name on a list in that company's database, not on any official star catalogue or registry that astronomers or scientists use. Patrick Moore will never mention “Irene’s Star” on The Sky at Night, Neil deGrasse Tyseon will never mention “Tiddles’ Star” in one of his books because the names are 100000% unofficial.

One of the companies does say this on its website: “Will astronomers call the star by its new name? No. In professional astronomical and scientific circles the star you name will be referred to either by telescope co-ordinates or by identity number.” but of course it's buried away in the small print in these packages and people have already paid for the thing by then, so it's too late.

So yes, this is amusing at first thought, but when you've had someone break down in tears at a "skywatch" event when they've found out that the star they "named" after their beloved grandmother isn't actually theirs at all, it isn't quite so funny.

And that's why I hate the whole star-naming thing. It's just wrong.