6 ms·

Define near... Reading the headline I was thinking in terms of AU, not millions of light years

lmilcin 5y ago
We only have one supermassive BH in Milky Way. Any other supermassive BH must live in a center of another galaxy. So a person that understands the topic should immediately understand we are talking about relatively close galaxy.
- tome 5y ago
  > a person that understands the topic should immediately understand we are talking about relatively close galaxy. Sure, but a person who doesn't would receive the message more clearly if it were stated as "Supermassive black hole eruption near milky way". Otherwise I could write "Supermassive black hole eruption near New York" and be equally correct. I suspect the potential for misunderstanding was the reason the headline was chosen in this form, however ...
  - rbanffy 5y ago
    12 million light years is around the corner in cosmic terms. Andromeda is our neighbour is about two million or so light years.
  - feoren 5y ago
    I fully agree that "near the White House", "near Washington", "near Earth", "near the solar system", and "near the Milky Way" all convey strongly different ideas of what "near" actually means. However, I think in this case they were basically going for "surprisingly near", or "near us". I think it's reasonable to say that this is unusually close to us.
    - eitland 5y ago
      Well, the headline as it currently stands includes both the earth and the moon which definitely primes the thoughts. I know research on priming has got some well deserved criticism, but there is no doubt basic framing works and this article either plays this effect for purpose or is scarily unaware of it.
    - sliken 5y ago
      Sure, but the nearest planets, stars, and galaxies to earth also gives an idea of the scale they are talking about. Sure you could say nearest the milky way, but sadly I suspect that a decent fraction of folks wouldn't not respond with "Milky Way" when asking for what galaxy the earth is in.
- OtomotO 5y ago
  So is the headline only written for a person that understands the topic? That explains a lot of clickbait!
  - lmilcin 5y ago
    There are different types of clickbait. The purpose of the title of any article is to attract attention, so from that point you could say every title is clickbait. Where I define "too far" (or actual clickbait) is when the title is dishonest about its contents or is purposefully omitting important information that makes the article much less interesting than the title suggests. In this case the title was actually both truthful and contained relatively complete description of what is included in the article. Could they say "near Milky Way"? Well... they could, but "near Earth" is also factually correct. And 12 million light years is actually quite close for any new supermassive black hole-related findings.
    - skinkestek 5y ago
      > Where I define "too far" (or actual clickbait) is when the title is dishonest about its contents or is purposefully omitting important information that makes the article much less interesting than the title suggests. A lot of clickbait is technically correct including many of the dreaded "<n> <x> that <y> - you won't guess number <z>".
- staticassertion 5y ago
  HN articles aren't for people who understand a topic. They're for topics that may be of interest to hackers.
mdoms 5y ago
If you click the headline there's actually significantly more information available. This weird truck actually works with most headlines.
sigmaprimus 5y ago
I suppose You could also measure such things in respect to time, considering the apparent distance of this event it also occurred long long ago in a galaxy far far away!
- jrootabega 5y ago
  Less than 12 parsecs ago?
  - bodhi_mind 5y ago
    A parsec is a measure of distance, not time.
    - gharman 5y ago
      Not in the Kessel Sector.
onion2k 5y ago
12 million light years is 0.013% of the size of the observable universe (93 billion light years diameter). That's quite close on a scale relative to the size of space.
- ignoramous 5y ago
  > the size of the observable universe 93 billion light years diameter While observable Universe will always be 93 billion light years in diameter, it is worth noting that everything is moving away from everything faster than gravity can counteract. That is, the Causally Disconnected (un-observable) Universe is inflating faster, the bigger it gets.
  - d1sxeyes 5y ago
    A lot of 'citation needed' and caveats based on our current understanding of physics.
    - ignoramous 5y ago
      You may be right, but as far as Cosmology is concerned, it is amazing we know whatever we do seem to know, just a century on from Einstein and Hubble.

We only have one supermassive BH in Milky Way. Any other supermassive BH must live in a center of another galaxy. So a person that understands the topic should immediately understand we are talking about relatively close galaxy.

tome 5y ago
> a person that understands the topic should immediately understand we are talking about relatively close galaxy. Sure, but a person who doesn't would receive the message more clearly if it were stated as "Supermassive black hole eruption near milky way". Otherwise I could write "Supermassive black hole eruption near New York" and be equally correct. I suspect the potential for misunderstanding was the reason the headline was chosen in this form, however ...
- rbanffy 5y ago
  12 million light years is around the corner in cosmic terms. Andromeda is our neighbour is about two million or so light years.
- feoren 5y ago
  I fully agree that "near the White House", "near Washington", "near Earth", "near the solar system", and "near the Milky Way" all convey strongly different ideas of what "near" actually means. However, I think in this case they were basically going for "surprisingly near", or "near us". I think it's reasonable to say that this is unusually close to us.
  - eitland 5y ago
    Well, the headline as it currently stands includes both the earth and the moon which definitely primes the thoughts. I know research on priming has got some well deserved criticism, but there is no doubt basic framing works and this article either plays this effect for purpose or is scarily unaware of it.
  - sliken 5y ago
    Sure, but the nearest planets, stars, and galaxies to earth also gives an idea of the scale they are talking about. Sure you could say nearest the milky way, but sadly I suspect that a decent fraction of folks wouldn't not respond with "Milky Way" when asking for what galaxy the earth is in.
OtomotO 5y ago
So is the headline only written for a person that understands the topic? That explains a lot of clickbait!
- lmilcin 5y ago
  There are different types of clickbait. The purpose of the title of any article is to attract attention, so from that point you could say every title is clickbait. Where I define "too far" (or actual clickbait) is when the title is dishonest about its contents or is purposefully omitting important information that makes the article much less interesting than the title suggests. In this case the title was actually both truthful and contained relatively complete description of what is included in the article. Could they say "near Milky Way"? Well... they could, but "near Earth" is also factually correct. And 12 million light years is actually quite close for any new supermassive black hole-related findings.
  - skinkestek 5y ago
    > Where I define "too far" (or actual clickbait) is when the title is dishonest about its contents or is purposefully omitting important information that makes the article much less interesting than the title suggests. A lot of clickbait is technically correct including many of the dreaded "<n> <x> that <y> - you won't guess number <z>".
staticassertion 5y ago
HN articles aren't for people who understand a topic. They're for topics that may be of interest to hackers.

mdoms 5y ago

If you click the headline there's actually significantly more information available. This weird truck actually works with most headlines.

sigmaprimus 5y ago

I suppose You could also measure such things in respect to time, considering the apparent distance of this event it also occurred long long ago in a galaxy far far away!

jrootabega 5y ago
Less than 12 parsecs ago?
- bodhi_mind 5y ago
  A parsec is a measure of distance, not time.
  - gharman 5y ago
    Not in the Kessel Sector.

onion2k 5y ago

12 million light years is 0.013% of the size of the observable universe (93 billion light years diameter). That's quite close on a scale relative to the size of space.

ignoramous 5y ago
> the size of the observable universe 93 billion light years diameter While observable Universe will always be 93 billion light years in diameter, it is worth noting that everything is moving away from everything faster than gravity can counteract. That is, the Causally Disconnected (un-observable) Universe is inflating faster, the bigger it gets.
- d1sxeyes 5y ago
  A lot of 'citation needed' and caveats based on our current understanding of physics.
  - ignoramous 5y ago
    You may be right, but as far as Cosmology is concerned, it is amazing we know whatever we do seem to know, just a century on from Einstein and Hubble.