
Astronomers discover ‘impossibly massive’ black hole LB-1 - Waiterpanda
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3039790/chinese-astronomers-discover-impossibly-massive-black-hole-lb-1
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gus_massa
From a previous post, the "impossibility" part is that it is impossible to
form a black hole of this size after a supernova. It must be formed merging a
few smaller black holes. So it's interesting, but the "impossibility" part is
just linkbait.

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ksaj
I make it a habit to not read science-themed articles that contain the word or
variants of the word "impossible" when describing something clearly observed.

The word "unexpectedly" or "surprisingly" is probably what they mean. But if
the writer thinks the scientists believe their observations to be impossible,
then they've written an article that isn't worth reading. The title already
says it isn't so -- they couldn't have observed this in any way.

These types of headline make it sound like the scientists don't know what
they're talking about. Since they obviously do know what they've observed, I'd
rather read about it from a writer who doesn't speak of them as being so
inept.

No wonder the Internet is littered with people who don't trust science. The
headlines keep discounting new discoveries by blatantly calling them
impossible.

I have the same beef with science writers who speak of "different solar
systems." Our sun is Sol. Our planetary system is the _only_ Solar System. All
those others are different star systems or different planetary systems that
may or may not be Solar-like, and they are named after their own star... not
after _ours_.

