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I think the author of this article should go back to grade school and retake some basic science classes.
http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/scientists-find-super-earth-2012025/
Meh, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. didn't know a lick of science and he is one of the greatest sci-fi writers of all time.
Sure, science writers know something about science. They just don't know much about writing. 
I tried to pass it up really I did.
Scientists should know something about science... then maybe worry about the writers. How many scientists are running around spouting unproven theories on things like Dark matter as if they were gospel. 
I made a funny 
On topic: The mistake in that article is hilarious.. but given I've never heard of the site I wouldn't put much stake in its writers anyway. In this day and age a 5 year old relying on spell check could write for a site like that. They simply parse real articles and reword them.. no original content. Maybe if they wouldn't try to insert their own witty facts into them this wouldn't happen.
I can only assume that this.. "writer" assumed that since it was in the stars habitable zone and it took 28 days to orbit.. that we must be similar. Of course.. I assume he doesn't know that there are different kinds of stars.. and the habitable zone for them vary widely.
IIRC GJ667C is a red dwarf..which would explain why the Habitable zone is so close to the star. (read about this in a more reputable source not long ago)
Sciense fiction is one thing, writing articles about scientific discovery is well "28 days to make its orbit which is very similar to our own one-month loops around the sun." I read that three times to make sure my flue didn't make me read what I thought I understood I saw while reading.
I sympathize with the sentiment that that writer should be smacked over the head with a book. Although at this point I'm probably delirious and there isn't one, in which case, there should be one. I wrote two very big astronomy papers in high-school, and made sure that every detail was correct. And mind you, this wasn't in the internet age... well it was, but there wasn't any in my land. Everything was researched by hand and written by hand with a pen. And yet, with all the resources of the internet, people make mistakes as big as that. If I wasn't concentrating so much on breathing properly, I would ... no idea, this cold is just murder on me, and it's going to get worse.
Depends... on whether you want education or comedy.
Hmph! I didn't know we loops around the sun 12 times in a year. Whaddya know 'bout that. 
Oh, come now...everyone knows the Sun revolves around the Earth....heck I'm sure there's a bunch of people in that God vs Science thread that will swear that's the case.
Surely you're not implying that isn't the case??!!
:LOL:
Heck no.....afterall tables have 4 legs simply because the earth is flat....;)
Ah good, I knew you were a reasonable person.
Actually....before someone gets all worried....4 legs can be stable on a sphere....but it's things like 6 leg billiard tables that prove the earth is flat....;)
Just a bit of proof that the moon isn't as big as we thought....or someone's got a REALLY BIG cannon.....;p
Um....shouldn't NASA know?
Note to self....stop imagining there is any REALITY on the Net.
Ah, Grasshopper, you progress well.
Already snatched the pebbles.....
Buggered if I know what I'm supposed to do with them now.....;p
You're supposed to move the pebbles from one end to the other and watch them not move because the Earth is flat and if it were round the pebbles would roll away.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/science/30profile.html?pagewanted=all
One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/3742/new-poll-gauges-americans-general-knowledge-levels.aspx
End of the last century ( half 90's ), it was 18% for US... between UK ( 19% ) and Germany ( 16% )
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/03/who-thinks-the-sun-goes-around-the-earth/
Some will think that situation will improve with time but it is untrue... soon, we will be back in the "dark age"...
Well, Europe is worst that US when taken in full...
And how much of the Chinese engineer who make the Apple Iphone think that the sun revolves around the Earth ??? Almost half of the population is wrong there !!!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/11/us-poll-education-odd-idUSTRE71A4OI20110211
In Russia, it is around 1 on 3...
Well technically speaking neither is right. Which means ~100% of the world population has no clue.
Both the sun and earth as well as the other planets revolve around the center of mass of the solar system. which happens to be very close to the sun due to the fact that the sun is 99+% of the mass in the solar system .
The fact that stars do orbit the center mass as well is actually what makes a discovery like this possible using doppler spectroscopy.
In this illustration the big one would be a star (the sun is a star for you aspiring writers out there) and the small one would be a planet. The + is the center of mass.
This has been another insightful lesson brought to you by Fistalis the science clown.. cause if your not learning it right your doing it wrong dumb#$%.
Well, you illustration look like these at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barycenter#Astronomy ... cute little theoric illustration... in reality, thing are a lot more complex with a lot of planet who don't rotate in sync...
The pic below show the solar system center of mass... sometine near the nucleus like in 1951 and 1990... and sometime way outside of the sun...
Yes.. but a more complex illustration doesn't change anything. What in my post are you disputing? Notice your illustration doesn't show the movement of the sun.. and assumes the sun is stationary. Which muddles the facts.
Of course the center mass is going to fluctuate with movement of the sun and planets (aka said mass). Its not that the center of mass itself is moving but that the mass itself is changing position, altering where the center of mass is. But that doesn't change the fact that the sun and planets orbit the center mass.
Personally I think the illustration I chose was adequate for illustrating my point. Since the center of mass compared to the suns position isn't important when speaking of the fact that the sun and planets all orbit the center of mass.
A better illustration would be the suns position in relation to the center of mass.. showing how its orbit is effected by it. Rather than an illustration which assumes the sun is stationary. That particular illustration even gives the idea of the age old myth that the sun is the center of the solar system. Which technically speaking it isn't. While the illustration is technically correct.. it gives the wrong idea, which might lead aspiring writers to make bad assumptions and misinform everyone else.
So what you are saying is that the world, sun, universe, does in fact revolve around me? I already knew that.
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