Posted Thursday, February 19, 2004 by Gene

False advertising
Today, CNN.com has this interesting story about how astronomers have witnessed a star being "eaten" by a black hole. It includes this simply breathtaking picture of the event itself. However, when you read the article, you discover that the "witnessing" involved X-ray telescopes, which examine a range of light that is not visible to the human eye. So what about the pretty picture?

The CNN article is sponsored by another site, called Space.com. If you go to THAT site and the SAME Article, you will find, in a separate column on the far right of the screen, hte same image, except this time it has underneath it the legend "Illustration depicts how the enormous gravity of the giant black hole..."

In other words, the breathtaking image is an artist's rendition. Nowhere in CNN.com is this fact pointed out.

We are regularly shown remarkable photographs from the Mars missions and the Hubble telescope. To create an image that is indistinguishable from an actual photo, and then not tell us, is incredibly misleading and very disappointing.