Posts: 10,227
Threads: 345
Joined: Apr 2009
When interns are let loose
"
It took researchers nearly eight years to find this star and although it doesn’t look like much here, they are very excited, because it’s believed to be the first star from a galaxy found near Sagittarius A — a supermassive black hole in the Milky Way.
Researchers think it might help confirm extra-terrestrial life.
Also on Mauna Kea, exists a laser that helps scientists find the far away galaxies.
It reaches 60 miles in the atmosphere before reflecting back to earth and the strength of light tells scientist how much light pollution they need to account for in their measurements."
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2023/12/06...lack-hole/
Posts: 11,023
Threads: 750
Joined: Sep 2012
When interns are let loose
Long hours, sharp young eyes, all nighters.
might help confirm extra-terrestrial life.
So, perhaps hope that there’s intelligent life somewhere in the universe?*
*(Note, I didn’t say elsewhere in the universe, as I’ve been reading TwitterX today)
Posts: 1,114
Threads: 41
Joined: May 2023
So, perhaps hope that there’s intelligent life somewhere in the universe?
I've always enjoyed Neil's take on alien life:
Posts: 3,202
Threads: 108
Joined: Jun 2010
"the first star from a galaxy found near Sagittarius A — a supermassive black hole in the Milky Way."
The wording of this is so ... nebulous. Is it the first star found in another galaxy near our own? Because I'm pretty sure we've found some other stars before... Or is it a star ejected from Sagittarius A? Or by galaxy found near Sagittarius A do they mean they found the Milky Way? But wouldn't the first star found in the Milky Way be our Sun?
Interns suck. Young people are dumb. Hopefully we will develop AGI before we have to rely on the current generation of young people. We might not even need any more people.
Posts: 10,227
Threads: 345
Joined: Apr 2009
12-10-2023, 07:34 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-11-2023, 08:37 AM by TomK.)
A colleague of mine suggested the article may have been written by AI; I think that has some validity, but whether it was an intern or AI, it shows they have a long way to go, and why would Hawaii News Now publish such a thing without checking?
The only remotely accurate part of the story is that a very old star has been discovered very close to the black hole at the center of the Galaxy. This star had to have migrated there because tidal forces caused by the black hole subdues nearby star formation, but this star is so old it had to have come from a great distance, much farther than any of the other nearby stars. A collision between galaxies is an obvious answer to the question of where it came from, and we know these occur and have occurred with our own Galaxy in the past.
The rest is drivel. This will not "confirm extra-terrestrial life", I have no idea where they got that from. There are also several laser systems on Mauna Kea and they help produce excellent image quality which helps with all sorts of observations, not just finding "far away galaxies", the latter being completely irrelevant. This article is about finding a star in our own Galaxy. And no, the lasers are not used to measure light pollution on Mauna Kea, they are used by adaptive optics systems to correct for atmospheric turbulence and create sharper and more detailed images and data.
Posts: 11,023
Threads: 750
Joined: Sep 2012
whether it was an intern or AI,
Ah! The interns may have written the article, not searched star fields for unusual objects. I had an acquaintance who volunteered at one of the Mauna Kea observatories looking for changes and movement in photos some years ago, so my mind went straight off in that direction.
Discovering a star near a black hole and extrapolating that it might harbor extraterrestrial life, that does sound like an intern having a laugh, or budget A.I. connecting very few dots from a couple bits of info, after training on social media steeped in conspiracy theories.
Posts: 10,227
Threads: 345
Joined: Apr 2009
Yes, sorry I wasn't clear. I was commenting on the ludicrous article, not the research itself which is very interesting.
Posts: 10,227
Threads: 345
Joined: Apr 2009
PS. Just looked at the article again. I missed this the first time around. At the end of the article there's a picture of a laser being fired off and the caption says "
Subaru Telescope laser (Subaru Telescope Mauna Kea)".
It's a laser from one of the Keck telescopes, not Subaru. Seriously, how many things can they get wrong in one short article?
Posts: 11,023
Threads: 750
Joined: Sep 2012
It's a laser from one of the Keck telescopes, not Subaru.
At least they didn’t show the Starship Enterprise firing the ship’s phasers.
Posts: 10,227
Threads: 345
Joined: Apr 2009
I'd suggest not giving HNN any ideas...
