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Is it just me, or does anyone else think that its strange that an observatory press release on the specific subject of the "observed light" can only lead it wit

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that its strange that an observatory press release on the specific subject of the "observed light" can only lead it with what I assume is an artists'impression? I'm sure that there is oodles of data to go through, but after 3 months, surely a representation of the actual data imaged could be presented?

acqq 9y ago
The actual images are also on the very same page where you only see an artist impression: PR Image eso1733b, PR Image eso1733c, PR Image eso1733d, PR Image eso1733e, PR Image eso1733h, PR Image eso1733k, PR Image eso1733m. There also are actual pictures in the scientific papers, for example: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/fig_tab/nature24291_F2.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/fig_tab/n... Also see the actual main paper, written by 4600 scientists together: there were many more observations and images than these two, but unfortunately they aren't "sexy" for the general public: a dot which appears and then disappears later. But the astronomers know how to even detect the presence of gold in that dot! Note: the chemical element helium, which today is even used to fill the balloons for the children, was first discovered on the Sun(!), using that kind of observations and analysis, and only later at our Earth. There is also a video, directly linked from the page you criticize, and part of the press release, which was made from the real images taken at different times, where the changes in time are visible: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1733c/ https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1733c/ Also, there are a lot of papers that are published, most observers will publish or have published their observations. The galaxy where the kilonova happened is some 130 million light years away, or 8 billion times more distant than the Sun is away from us, and what's observed (in different spectrums) is a source of a lot of light (or electromagnetic radiation) at the edge of that galaxy, and also the gravitational waves. To compare the sizes, there could be 1000 of our own galaxies placed one after another to fill the distance to that kilonova. There are around 400 billion stars just in our own galaxy.

acqq 9y ago

The actual images are also on the very same page where you only see an artist impression: PR Image eso1733b, PR Image eso1733c, PR Image eso1733d, PR Image eso1733e, PR Image eso1733h, PR Image eso1733k, PR Image eso1733m. There also are actual pictures in the scientific papers, for example: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/fig_tab/nature24291_F2.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/fig_tab/n... Also see the actual main paper, written by 4600 scientists together: there were many more observations and images than these two, but unfortunately they aren't "sexy" for the general public: a dot which appears and then disappears later. But the astronomers know how to even detect the presence of gold in that dot! Note: the chemical element helium, which today is even used to fill the balloons for the children, was first discovered on the Sun(!), using that kind of observations and analysis, and only later at our Earth. There is also a video, directly linked from the page you criticize, and part of the press release, which was made from the real images taken at different times, where the changes in time are visible: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1733c/ https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1733c/ Also, there are a lot of papers that are published, most observers will publish or have published their observations. The galaxy where the kilonova happened is some 130 million light years away, or 8 billion times more distant than the Sun is away from us, and what's observed (in different spectrums) is a source of a lot of light (or electromagnetic radiation) at the edge of that galaxy, and also the gravitational waves. To compare the sizes, there could be 1000 of our own galaxies placed one after another to fill the distance to that kilonova. There are around 400 billion stars just in our own galaxy.