Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Dueling Science Stories

New evidence of massive black hole in our galaxy

"Zhi-Qiang Shen and researchers at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory captured radio waves emitted just beyond the edge of the mysterious object, known as Sagittarius A, with a system of 10 radio telescopes spread across the United States."

Milky Way's Big Black Hole Gets Downsized

"The black hole that lies at the heart of our galaxy is much smaller than previously known. It could fit within the space between the Earth and the Sun, according to a new study."

So is it massive or more diminutive than first imagined? The first headline comes from Reuters, describing the source as "Chinese scientists."

A click into the second link provides the true story of how science has known for quite some time that the center of our galaxy contained a black hole, and that recent studies have proved it to be far smaller than previously thought. Then again a British news service featuring Chinese scientists is hardly something to get excited over, but it would be nice for them to get things straight. Once in a while?

What's next? Reuters reporting that Chinese scientists have announced that corn grows in Iowa?

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