In the most recent entry of Sindya N. Bhanoo’s “Observatory” column, she discusses the discovery of a hot Jupiter exoplanet orbiting an old and dying star at the edge of our galaxy. The article benefits from a great three-paragraph lead that states the finding, provides a quote from a scientist, and most importantly, explains why it is important: “The finding is important because the planet orbits a very old star that is nearing the end of its life span and may soon collapse…‘The most important thing is to understand how a planetary system evolves, and maybe our solar system will experience the same process in the next two or three billion years,’” said the lead astronomer of the study.
The problem, though, with this article is that it makes one thing—which seems to be important since it is mentioned in the first sentence—very unclear. In the first sentence, Bhanoo writes that the discovered exoplanet has “origins outside the Milky Way galaxy.” However, in the fourth paragraph of the article, she writes, “Currently, the star and its planet are in the Milky Way.” No further information is given on the stellar system’s whereabouts. How is this possible? Perhaps the star and planet formed outside the Milky Way originally and somehow migrated to our galaxy, but if that is the case, it would have been nice if Bhanoo had made that more explicit and clear in her article.
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