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JWST reveals its first direct image discovery of an exoplanet

(www.smithsonianmag.com)
342 points divbzero | 1 comments | 27 Jun 25 17:44 UTC | HN request time: 0.205s | source
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jl6 ◴[28 Jun 25 05:57 UTC] No.44402559[source]▶
> To further support their observations, Lagrange and her colleagues ran computer models that visualized the potential planetary system. The simulations yielded images that aligned with the ones captured by the telescope. “This was really why we were confident that there was a planet,”

Don’t get me wrong, I love that we are doing this work and have no reason to doubt that this is indeed an exoplanet image, but I view this kind of modelling as a pretty weak form of support for a hypothesis. Models are built from assumptions, which are influenced by expectations. They are not data.

replies(1): >>44409118 #
1. fc417fc802 ◴[28 Jun 25 23:42 UTC] No.44409118[source]▶
It depends on how the model was constructed and how it is used. Ideally you expect the vast majority of possible observations not to fit your model. So if they do then that's a strong indicator that you have what you expect. Whereas if they don't you can't be certain if the model is maybe just not quite right.