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Comment by ojnabieoot | Hacker News Reader

The title is in an odd spot where, on the face, it is completely anodyne, and not at all misleading or “clickbait.” Yet even sensible readers (like me!) see “radio” and “exoplanet” in the same sentence and think “ALIENS!”

Very awkward spot for the science PR people writing this. It’s almost like it needs extra words to prevent people from adding

“Possible (But Definitely Non-Alien) Radio Emission From Exoplanet (Which Cannot Support Life) Detected”

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It’s a radio emission, not a radio transmission. That’s a key distinction that may be lost on a lay reader (or anyone not paying enough attention).

Astronomers, amateur astronomers, and astronomy enthusiasts all tend to be aware of the fact that radio is just another part of the spectrum we can use to look at the universe. It’s a strange quirk of our culture that the word radio carries connotations of technology and thus connotes intelligence.

> It’s a strange quirk of our culture that the word radio carries connotations of technology and thus connotes intelligence.

Counterpoint: "radio wave fart from exoplanet detected". No connotation of intelligence IMO

Though, perhaps, of biology.

Not quite as whack as the rash of headlines a while back referring to FRB as 'mysterious radio signals' from 'deep space'.

> anodyne

It's pretty rare for me to run into a (non-technical, niche) word I'm not at least somewhat familiar with, thanks!

anodyne (adjective): not likely to provoke dissent or offense; inoffensive, often deliberately so.

You're obviously not an Uncle Tupelo fan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZtdUkqhSgk

I used that a couple of weeks ago responding to a bland email from my state’s DOT completely ignoring the concerns I raised.

"Natural Radio Emission" seems to clarify things just fine.

If that's a Natural Radio Emission, then what's a Nocturnal Transmission then?

Why the downvotes - it's an obvious reference to Charlie Farquharson's commentary on the moon missions. :-)

Possible is a sneaky word to use here, implying unbelievability.

First Exoplanet Detected by Naturally Occurring Radio Emission

Occasionally I'll see an headline making a marvelous claim about 'Gravity Waves'... something like 'shrimp synchronize reproduction to gravity waves'. I always read it as gravitational waves, and for a split second I think there was some revolutionary physics discovery. Of course, they're simply talking about waves driven by gravity... or, in other words, everyday normal waves in water and air.

The same thing happens all the time with pulsars. "Astronomers detect radio signal in space" and don't mention that the signal's frequency is similar to a pulsar

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