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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 idea
by 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 agoWell, 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 agoSure, 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.