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Newly Formed Solar System

Posted by Zonk on from the dubbed-mordor dept.

xPsi writes "An article in New Scientist reports that a team of astronomers from UC Berkeley and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have used the Hubble space telescope to image a dust ring in orbit around Fomalhaut, a nearby star about 25 light years away. The ring 'offers the best evidence yet that a nearby star is circled by a newly formed solar system.' Oddly enough, from the Earth's vantage point, the ring also happens to resemble The Eye of Sauron. One Ring to rule them all, one Ring to find them..."

3 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. No pupil by ByteSlicer · · Score: 4, Informative

    Oddly enough, from the Earth's vantage point, the ring also happens to resemble The Eye of Sauron.

    Actually, the black pupil isn't really there, it's just the Hubble's coronagraph (see TFA). So, while the picture indeed resembles the Eye of Sauron, the system doesn't really look like this seen from Earth.

    1. Re:No pupil by helioquake · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually, the black pupil isn't really there

      Nor those spoke-like features radiating out of the black eye. These patterns are due to the opitical system of the HST/ACS instrument.

  2. Re:Wallpaper sized image? by helioquake · · Score: 4, Informative

    Go here:

    STScI Press Release

    Click on the top image, then scroll down to find unannotated version of images and click on it. Then you'll find a big TIFF file of this picture.

    Enjoy.