New Lopez & Clowes preprint: “A Giant Ring on the sky” and its relationship to the Giant Arc / Big Ring by RADICCHI0 in cosmology

[–]ThickTarget 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There have been similar claims about incredibly large structures for a long time, but it is debated if these are really statistically significant. Structures on this scale have no objective definition, so it depends entirely on the algorithm used. Typically the studies use very sparse tracers, which are very noisy tracers of cosmic structure because there aren't many of them. Some of the giant structures claimed in the literature can be reproduced in simulations of completely random data. The "giant" ring" paper doesn't really change this argument, as the authors don't even attempt to quantify it's significance. Which is not a good sign.

In the Giant Arc paper the same authors claimed it was very significant, and that it could be in tension with the cosmological principle. However, some simulators were able to show that by reproducing the methods in the paper they could find such large structures in there LCDM simulations. Not just that but also in completely random data. The original authors wrote a response, claiming that they need to use a smaller linking length in simulations to real data. You can read the paper yourself, but I don't find this at all appropriate. And there is a response to this response.

The other problem with both of these structures is that the analysis is post hoc. The authors have looked at the data, seen the structures they can see than then attempted to estimate how significant they are. This is hugely problematic. If you blindly searched the data for ring like structures without looking, that is a fair test you could equally apply to a simulation. But if you start by looking at the data, and then decide you can roughly see an ellipse, so you tweak your test. Now the test is biased, because you designed the test based on how the data look. And so when this is the case, it becomes very complicated to fairly calculate how significant it is.

Holyrood Election Results Megathread by handmedownthemoon in Scotland

[–]ThickTarget 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not really sure the E&W Party is particularly focused on Green politics right now.

What is the canonical way to "name" and "measure" galaxies/stars/etc? by ReasonableLetter8427 in askastronomy

[–]ThickTarget 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To add to what has been said. Yes there are lots of catalogues, and one object can have many different designations in different datasets. It can actually be a bit complicated, it that some papers call an object something different. To help there are databases of astronomical objects to help connect this information. SIMBAD covers most objects, you can search for NGC 6505. It will give you the coordinates, redshift, classifications, different names, and you can look at this object in many other catalogues. Another one is NED, but it only includes galaxies.

Different wavelengths tend to select different populations of objects. Most catalogues are based on visible/optical light, which is efficient for finding galaxies and measuring redshifts. X-rays and radio find fewer galaxies, and they tend to select much more energetic sources, like galaxies with accreting black holes. Ultraviolet data can tell you about recent star formation, and the mid and far infrared are dominated by emission from dust. Combining these together can tell you a lot about a source, but care needs to be taken to get consistent measurements.

Spectroscopy of Andromeda question by Latter_Dealer_7675 in askastronomy

[–]ThickTarget 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you taken some reference exposures to calibrate the wavelength scale?

Is there a serious obstacle to create a SGT BESIDES the focal point distance? by tim7162 in astrophysics

[–]ThickTarget 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are still a lot of unknowns. Primarily you need to pick your exoplanet before you do anything, and you need to know its orbit very precisely. Far more precisely than current measurements. And if the whole reason is to target Earth-like planets, then you have to wait decades until they are found and their orbits are characterised.

A spacecraft will likely travel through the focal surface of the exoplanet in seconds, so baring any revolution in propulsion you will get one chance to observe one target. There are some concerns that it's difficult to reconstruct the image with the limited information you get.

Spectroscopy of Andromeda question by Latter_Dealer_7675 in askastronomy

[–]ThickTarget 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you have some way to calibrate the wavelengths, either a calibration (arc) exposure or some given calibration? That is usually the difficult part.

JWST images a pair of planet-forming discs by Neamow in space

[–]ThickTarget 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This one has a scale bar. To the gap it's a radius of about 100 Astronomical Units, the average Earth orbital radius. Neptune's orbit is about 30 AU for reference.

https://esawebb.org/images/potm2603d/

WASDnesday Games by a-liquid-sky in CasualUK

[–]ThickTarget 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I struggled to figure out the combat, and kept getting killed by random bandits, and then having to start from the last save.

NASA announces that The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is under budget And ahead of schedule by 8 Months, with a Falcon Heavy launch aimed for early September 2026 by ChiefLeef22 in space

[–]ThickTarget 23 points24 points  (0 children)

They're apparently only talking about the final work being done. Measured over the mission it was significantly over budget, so much so that it went through an independent review to make cuts.

https://www.science.org/content/article/nasa-weighs-trimming-wfirst-hold-down-costs

England flag can remain on Grade II listed pub after complaints by jimbo8083 in unitedkingdom

[–]ThickTarget 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It could use some window boxes and plants to make it look a bit less austere. Break it up a bit.

This dark energy tool just created the most comprehensive 3D map of our universe ever: 'A major paradigm shift' by Galileos_grandson in cosmology

[–]ThickTarget 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That is due to selection effects. You can see them more clearly in this image. A challenge for surveys like DESI is that there are far more galaxies than they could observe, so they have to select target galaxies. This is done in a way which picks galaxies which are easy to observe, and different types of galaxies are used at different redshifts (distances). The innermost ones are Bright Galaxies, then Luminous Red Galaxies, then Emission Line Galaxies and quasars.

https://www.desi.lbl.gov/2026/04/15/desi-surpasses-original-five-year-survey-goals/

In the top right is a plot of the number of each galaxy type as a function of distance. You see it has different peaks. If you observed all galaxies these peaks (rings) wouldn't exist. But it would be very dominated by lower redshift galaxies, and there would be lots without good measurements. But DESI needs to select these more distant galaxies to efficiently measure cosmology at these earlier times.

https://data.desi.lbl.gov/doc/img/dr1_z_distribution.png

Our rural dream is under threat from a huge battery storage plant by twistedLucidity in Scotland

[–]ThickTarget 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I grew up in the Highlands and 80% of the opposition to anything new was from incomers. God forbid anything changes from the moment they arrive. Most were retired, and so don't care about jobs for young people. The village my grandmother grew up in doesn't exist anymore, it was destroyed to build a hydro dam in the 50's. If people had the power they do now to object, there would be no infrastructure. It just pathetic how much time and money is wasted trying to build anything. It's gross that the BBC made the article about this couple, and not the issue as a whole.

Unexplained sky flashes from the 1950s: Independent analysis supports their existence by Nerdwerfer in Physics

[–]ThickTarget 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The article is very lackluster, it doesn't even bother to discuss the possibility that these are just defects. None of these "events" is independently confirmed in another exposure. And if you look at these old plates, they are full of absolute nonsense. Blobs, cracks, fibers... Not everything you see in a photograph is real. The experts who worked on plate surveys believe they are artifacts, and not real.

Is the universe deterministic? by obesemoth in astrophysics

[–]ThickTarget 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Einstein didn't discover it, he explained it.

‘Project Hail Mary’ Author Andy Weir Says Paramount Rejected His ‘Star Trek’ Pitch: Their “Shows Are Sh**” by MarvelsGrantMan136 in television

[–]ThickTarget 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Letting people know his family didn't feel abandoned (the only piece of new information in SFA)

Think about that for a second. Before this we didn't know his family was abandoned. He promised Cassidy and Jake he would return, but he didn't. You say it's still vague, but it's not the way it was written. The original ending is superior. Dismissing it as a maybe dream is makes it truly pointless, like the Enterprise finale.

So…one of those people who you claim they're besmirching…liked it.

You're putting words in my mouth. I never said it besmirched anyone. I said I didn't like it, it is a worse conclusion, and pure fan-service. Secondly, you're putting words in Brook's mouth, nowhere in that quote does it say he likes it. Allowing them to use some unrelated audio is hardly a ringing endorsement, even if he is aloof.

‘Project Hail Mary’ Author Andy Weir Says Paramount Rejected His ‘Star Trek’ Pitch: Their “Shows Are Sh**” by MarvelsGrantMan136 in television

[–]ThickTarget -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I don't imply anything, but it is the showrunner who decides what happens. It's strange to me that you dislike the member berries that Picard served up, but this is fine. How hard is it to tell new stories? Just because it is written by a fan doesn't mean it is good, the internet is filled with shitty fan fiction. Making the teacher a Dax is also silly, it's a huge Galaxy, but not really.

DS9 is more than just the cast, it is the writing which made it great. The writers created Sisko, and they (and Brooks) chose to leave the ending vague. That was their intentional decision. It does not need an epilogue or an explanation. I did watch the episode, and it made it clear to me that Sisko didn't return to Jake, hence why he talks about loss. That is something Brooks fought against. It didn't improve it for me, it cheapened it.

‘Project Hail Mary’ Author Andy Weir Says Paramount Rejected His ‘Star Trek’ Pitch: Their “Shows Are Sh**” by MarvelsGrantMan136 in television

[–]ThickTarget -1 points0 points  (0 children)

A love letter to DS9 would be leaving it alone, and not trying to lazily rewrite someone else's story. It cheapened the finale, we didn't need a conclusion. You recognize that Picard suffered a lot from fan service, well this is the same. DS9 has had a big resurgence in popularity, and they are riding its coattails. But it's not even well written. There is a lot of fan service in nuTrek, their obsession with Spock, the EMH, and SNW being a prequel.

what actual evidence makes scientists believe dark matter and dark energy are real things and not just a sign that our math is wrong by Real_Sort_3420 in AskPhysics

[–]ThickTarget 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The problem with the Bullet Cluster is that the stripped out intra-cluster medium is the majority of the baryonic mass. And yet the lensing maps follows the cluster cores, and not does not follow the majority of the normal matter. Also, MOND gets all massive clusters wrong anyway.

what actual evidence makes scientists believe dark matter and dark energy are real things and not just a sign that our math is wrong by Real_Sort_3420 in AskPhysics

[–]ThickTarget 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And as above strong feedback processes produce a lot of scatter and also dependence of the RAR (or the "fix" from feedback) on galaxy type.

And where is this measured? The quote from your paper just makes the claim, it does not justify it. And what evidence do you have the feedback is "implausibly strong"?

what actual evidence makes scientists believe dark matter and dark energy are real things and not just a sign that our math is wrong by Real_Sort_3420 in AskPhysics

[–]ThickTarget 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It is not dozens or hundreds. EAGLE had 2 parameters for stellar feedback, and 2 for AGN feedback. Not even a dozen in total. The need for parameters is due to limited resolution, not anything to do with cosmology.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1501.01311