Hubble spies lord of the stellar rings (Eye of Sauron)

[IChing]

Hubble spies lord of the stellar rings


18:00 22 June 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Ivan Semeniuk


A spectacular, luminous ring offers the best evidence yet that a nearby star is circled by a newly formed solar system.

The ring is composed of dust particles in orbit around Fomalhaut, a bright star located just 25 light years away in the constellation Pisces Austalis – or the Southern Fish. A recent image captured with the Hubble Space Telescope - which makes the system look uncannily like the Great Eye of Sauron from the blockbusting Lord of the Rings trilogy - confirms that Fomalhaut’s ring is curiously offset with respect to the star.

The most likely explanation is that the gravity of one or more unseen planets is dragging the ring askew. The fact that the inner edge of the ring is relatively well-defined adds further weight to the argument because it suggests the unseen planets are sweeping up stray dust within the radius of the ring.>>>>snip

http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn7564--hubble-spies-lord-of-the-stellar-rings.html



The geometrical centre of the ring is offset to the left of the star’s position, shown with a yellow dot (Image: NASA, ESA, Kalas/Graham/UCB, Clampin/NASA/GSFC)
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[Seabiscuit]

1. Whaaoooo! That's ominous!

[freethought]

2. Brrrrrr! It really is the 'Eye of Sauron'! n/t

[aeolian]

3. Whoa! Sweet!

[IChing]

4. Save the hubble it's pictures like this and others that

says so much about the universe we live in
To think that our solar system looked like this
in it's infancy
boggles the mind
that an eye is born in the birth
of a star's solar system almost
makes it seem as a living organism.