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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. I wonder if they have any telephone poles by Rei · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wonder if that would be a good spot to post my flyer:

    **Missing!**

    One solar sail. Shiny silver, 10 stories tall, 5 microns wide. Lost near the Sol area, but may be near Formalhaut in about 500 years. Answers to "401.525 MHz". Very dear to our hearts; reward offered.If sighted, please contact the Planetary Society at 626-793-5100.

    --
    What a crazy random happenstance!
  2. soooo old! by cryptoz · · Score: 5, Funny

    Come on, even Slashdot is usually better at reporting news that's RECENT! I mean, how can you call something that formed 25 years ago _news_? Bah!

  3. So now we have by urbster1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    a LOTR solar system? What's next, the Star Wars solar system? Oh wait, my bad, that was a long, long time ago.