260
votes
Was credit for the black hole image misattributed?
The metric does not measure what it is claimed it does, and even if it did it would be meaningless for assessing the role of Dr. Kate Bouman in creating the image. I'll go on to why, but I first want ...
- 2,484
144
votes
Is the Gregorian calendar the "most accurate calendar ever devised"?
Is Neil Tyson's claim that the Gregorian calendar is the “most accurate calendar ever devised” true?
TL; DR:
The Gregorian calendar qualifies as "most accurate" if one defines "most ...
- 14.4k
133
votes
Was credit for the black hole image misattributed?
Technically, that is the percentage of the code she contributed, 2410 lines in 90 commits.
From https://github.com/achael/eht-imaging/graphs/contributors
But that tells us nothing about what the ...
- 2,629
123
votes
Accepted
Is phosphine evidence of life on Venus?
TL;DR
The claimed detection of phosphine is not conclusive evidence of life on Venus; it simply indicates that there are unknown chemical pathways on the planet that are producing it. While these may ...
- 11.1k
86
votes
Accepted
Are there too few Supernova Remnants to support the Milky Way being billions of years old?
There are many reasons why this is wrong. The first one is the assumption of 1 supernova per 25 years. That was the value arrived at in Gustav Tammann's article published in 1970. Others got values up ...
- 5,858
81
votes
Accepted
Can we determine for sure if the Sun revolves around the Earth?
The referenced link is correct; all frames of reference are equally valid in general relativity -- with a catch or two. One catch is that the mathematics can get a bit ugly (or more than a bit ugly), ...
- 14.4k
52
votes
Is the Gregorian calendar the "most accurate calendar ever devised"?
False.
That little outfit called NASA says this:
The Persian Calendar, also known as the Iranian Calendar, is made available in a similar fashion for it is the most accurate of calendars. These ...
- 43.9k
49
votes
Accepted
Did we receive a signal from outer space in 1977?
Yes, there was a famous narrowband signal detected in 1977, which became known as the "Wow! signal". Whether it came from outer space is unknown.
The original astronomer wrote a 30th Anniversary ...
- 139k
42
votes
Do 26% of Americans believe the sun revolves around the Earth?
Is there any evidence other than this to back it up?
A Gallup poll in 1999 found that 18% of Americans thought the Sun revolves around the earth.
So there is support for the notion that substantial ...
- 24.8k
41
votes
Accepted
Was credit for the black hole image misattributed?
The old title asked "Did researcher Katie Bouman only contribute 0.26% of code that created Black Hole image," and the existing answers do a good job explaining why it isn't true and why lines of code ...
38
votes
Accepted
Is this animation showing the moon's librations a real capture or generated?
This image is software generated, according to its Wikimedia page:
Own work, created with "Full Sky Observatory"
Source bitmap for projection from Nasa's Clementine Spacecraft
You can see ...
- 27.8k
38
votes
Did Betelgeuse explode on August 7, 2022?
No, Betelgeuse is not exploding, and the video does not claim that it is. It carries the legend
Possible supernova explosion (just a guess)
That star will explode at some time, as reported by ...
- 6,615
33
votes
Can we determine for sure if the Sun revolves around the Earth?
TLDR: the Rabbi is correct in a very specific technical sense, but it is not helpful to think about the question in the way he advocates.
Detailed answer:
The Rabbi's claim raises an interesting ...
- 4,539
30
votes
Did all iron on Earth come from outer space?
TL;DR
The majority of the Earth's iron was around when the planet formed. Calculations of the mass deposited by subsequent impacts show that these impacts were comparatively insignificant in changing ...
- 11.1k
23
votes
Accepted
Can one estimate accurately the time until sunset using the width of one's fingers?
Nearly True
This works, but there is one detail missing, and depending on your latitude the picture could be misleading. The sun moves approximately one finger width across the sky each 15 minutes, ...
- 681
23
votes
Is the Gregorian calendar the "most accurate calendar ever devised"?
It's a fair statement to make, even if not true (and especially not when taken out of context).
From the context it's apparent that he meant predictive calendars in widespread use. Also one can imply ...
- 331
21
votes
Accepted
Can Polaris be seen from the Australian tropics?
The current night sky as seen from Nairobi, Kenya (1°17′ south latitude) and from Darwin, Australia (12°27′ south latitude) are shown below.
Nairobi, Kenya night sky:
Darwin, Australia night sky:
...
- 14.4k
19
votes
Is phosphine evidence of life on Venus?
Any strong claims made by news outlets are journalistic rather than scientific.
The linked article is pretty cautious, and reflects the researchers' position rather well. Other stories have gone a ...
- 291
17
votes
Is the Gregorian calendar the "most accurate calendar ever devised"?
Basically, Tyson's claim is roughly true considering that more accurate alternatives in actual use are either:
observation-based, i.e. tweak the calendar at is goes (current Persian i.e. Solar Hijri ...
- 56.9k
17
votes
Did Betelgeuse explode on August 7, 2022?
No, it is a looped video.
It is not possible to observe Betelgeuse from the surface of the Earth for more than 24 hours, with a few exceptions in the Antarctic winter. The rotation of the Earth takes ...
- 16.2k
15
votes
Accepted
Does the asteroid 16 Psyche contain this much gold?
Likely close to that much, yes.
We don't know the precise amounts of these trace precious metals in Psyche, merely that the main constituents are nickel and iron.
Our understanding of the amounts of ...
- 11.1k
14
votes
Accepted
Did Stephen Hawking say that blackholes don't exist?
No, that isn't exactly what Stephen Hawking said.
What Hawking did was propose an explanation to one of the most puzzling problems in theoretical physics. How can black holes exist when they seem to ...
- 2,132
13
votes
Did the Indian Mathematician Aryabhata state that the earth was round and calculate diameter of earth
What the text says
There is an English translation of The Aryabhatiya with notes is available online.
Regarding the spherical Earth, the text says (page 64 of the book)
The sphere of he Earth, ...
- 1,073
13
votes
Did all iron on Earth come from outer space?
The mass of the Earth is approximately 5.98×10²⁴ kg. In bulk, by mass, it is composed mostly of iron (32.1%), oxygen (30.1%), silicon (15.1%), magnesium (13.9%), sulfur (2.9%), nickel (1.8%), calcium (...
- 2,863
13
votes
Accepted
Do recent images from the JWST pose a major crisis for Big Bang cosmology?
Some of Lerner's previous complaints about the state of the art did and still do have validity, but his claims about the JWST are wildly out of proportion.
Lerner's ideas were presented in a 1991 book,...
- 154
13
votes
Do recent images from the JWST pose a major crisis for Big Bang cosmology?
No.
Mr. Lerner provides no evidence for the new JWST data causing a major crisis in cosmology, nor that "The Big Bang didn't happen"; other cosmologists disagree with his conclusions. The &...
- 16.2k
12
votes
Accepted
Was the 2017 solar eclipse the most-observed in history?
Probably not. According to 'Monster' solar eclipse takes on Asian giants , referring to the 22 July 2009 solar eclipse, which had over 6 minutes of totality:
The total transit will obscure the sun ...
- 103k
11
votes
Accepted
Did Saudi Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz claim the earth is flat?
This supposed fatwa relates to Sheik Abdul-Aziz Ibn Baaz, but the 1993 date is much too recent, and it is a false accusation of being a fatwa.
There is an official statement from the Kingdom of ...
- 103k
11
votes
Did Betelgeuse explode on August 7, 2022?
No, Betelgeuse is not currently exploding. The live stream linked in the question may in fact be a live stream of Betelgeuse, but nothing is happening. Note that this answer is 20 hours after the ...
- 3,025
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible