Slashdot Mirror
Exoplanet Found In Old Hubble Image
Kristina at Science News writes "A new way to process images reveals an extrasolar planet that had been hiding in an 11-year-old Hubble picture. After ground-based telescopes found three planets orbiting the young star HR 8799, a team took that information and reprocessed some 11-year-old Hubble Space Telescope images. Voila. There was one of the three planets, captured by Hubble but not visible until new knowledge could see the picture in a fresh light. The technique could reveal hidden treasures in many archived telescope images."
For reference, the first exoplanet to be (knowingly) directly imaged was 2M1207_b in late 2004.
... how many other unknown things are hiding in those old images.
"The nice thing about new techniques like this is that it points out that we are always missing something. It's like the basic flaw in Fermi's paradox..."
There is no "flaw" in Fermi's paradox, it's an observation of an inconsistency designed to make one think about what we are missing.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
I'm regularly frustrated by the subtle hubris of completeness that underlies so many scientific assertions.
I don't think science is to blame for that, but the oversimplified reporting of it. No serious scientist assumes completeness.
There are things more important than the pretty bits of paper you Americans cling to.
I'd thought the past few months would have shown you this. Profit does not always mean money.
The truth shall always be free: Boris Floricic is Tron.
One of the major problems with Ockham's razor is a tendency that we have to assume that we have all the facts when we apply it.
Otherwise, it's a great tool.
Mind the frickin' laser...