[aruanan]

The super-dense world circles so close to its host star that it takes a mere 18 hours to complete one orbital lap. Using our solar system for comparison, 55 Cancri e is 26 times closer to its parent star than Mercury is to the sun, according to NASA officials.

These poor writers. 26 times a distance is not the same thing as 1/26 of the distance. You can say something is X times as far, but not X times as close.

So, either "Using our solar system for comparison, Mercury is 26 times farther away from the sun than 55 Cancri is to its parent star" or "Compared to Mercury's distance from the sun, 55 Cancri is only 1/26th that distance from its parent star."

[Larry Lucido]

If a world is “super dense,” does that mean that earth bullets would bounce off you, or that it is inhabited by democrats?

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, that’s a common problem, the x times = 1/x, math is just not their strong suit. It’s possible that they’re dumbing it down for their readers, but I’m pretty sure their readers aren’t that dumb.

[FreedomPoster]

I sometimes think innumeracy is a requirement to become a journalist these days.