Science Reporting Gone Wild

It still amazes me that in this age of information reporters try to make science discoverys sound freakish or disasterous. I am referring to this article.

"The remnants of the explosion pose no threat to people or electronics, but it still offers hints of a future fireworks display from another, much closer star — a mere 7,500 light-years away — that has been on astronomers' death-watch list for some time."


Well, duh. The damn thing is 240 million light years away. Of course it poses no threat. But the second part leads us up to their cliffhanger for this article.

"The explosion mirrors the potential fate of Eta Carinae, a jumbo star about 7,500 light-years away that is at least 100 times heftier than our sun, Livio says. Astronomers have expected Eta Carinae to blast apart since the 1840s when eruptions of its outer surface were first spotted. But it's impossible to say whether that could happen this week or half a million years from now."


Eta Carinae, besides being one of the most unusual objects we have ever found, IS a ticking time bomb. It will go off some day. And the irony of this in relation to this story is that while SN 2006gy poses no threat, Eta Carinae to some extent does. Seventy five hundred lightyears is nothing. But the author makes it out to sound like that while SN 2006gy may have been cause for concern, Eta Carinae going supernova, will be "really cool". Which is the exact opposite.