'Most Earth-Like' Exoplanet Gets Major Demotion 206
audiovideodisco writes "Last month, the team behind NASA's Kepler planet-finding mission announced the discovery of the most Earth-like planetary candidate ever spotted: KOI 326.01, an approximately Earth-sized planet orbiting in the habitable zone of its star. There was much excitement; one astrophysicist even calculated the value of the new planet as exactly $223,099.93. But when an innocent fact-checker's question sent one of the researchers back to look at some figures, she noticed that the star's brightness was listed incorrectly in a reference catalog, throwing the planet's properties into doubt. After jiggering the calculations, the Kepler team now says that KOI 326.01 is neither Earth-sized nor in the habitable zone, and may actually be orbiting a different star. The Kepler researcher says, 'We're seeing the scientific method playing out in real time.' While this news is a bit of a downer, Kepler is just getting going, and it's expected to find many, many more Earth-like planets."
Re:Really .. (Score:4, Informative)
Sounds more like an epic success for science to me.
Re:Scientific method or fact checking (Score:4, Informative)
The catalog was wrong, it's not a calculation it's just having the wrong data. Of course a quick look at the picture would have shown the error, but who looks at anything but the table of numbers?
Re:Real time science indeed (Score:5, Informative)
Just... No. What you are describing is nothing related to science.
What you are talking about may apply to science journalism. That is basically what happens when a liberal arts major gets told that he drew the short straw and has to write a science article instead of sympathizing with starving Rawandan kids or discussing the latest celebrity gossip.
Re:Really .. (Score:2, Informative)
"The chances for life on this planet are 100 percent," Steven Vogt, a UC professor of astronomy and astrophysics says. "I have almost no doubt about it."
I and every other research scientist I know (a lot of them) all just shook our heads when we heard that quote.
Re:Really .. (Score:2, Informative)
That'd be...
CNN
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/30/100-percent-chance-for-life-on-newly-found-planet/ [cnn.com]
Space.com
http://www.space.com/9225-odds-life-newfound-earth-size-planet-100-percent-astronomer.html [space.com] ,and a host of others. This was in mainstream press. Not tabloids.
There are a few scientists around who occasionally say idiotic things. Unfortunately, sometimes they do it in front of reporters. This would be one of those times.