Thursday, November 13, 2008

Scientists Photograph Eye of Sauron


Okay, okay, so it's not the all-seeing evil eye of Tolkien lore.

This (above) shot is merely of the star Fomalhaut, which UC Berkely scientists recently photographed with an orbiting planet, released at the same time of other photographs of a star (HR8799) with three planets larger than Jupiter orbiting it, some 128 light years away.

Almost as nerd-out inducing, isn't it?

4 comments:

Kate said...

I thought the same thing.

Paul Hornschemeier said...

As do/did a lot of people, unbeknownst to me (though I guess I should have guessed that the intersection of physics and Tolkien enthusiasts would be pretty large)... James Graham, one of the team that photographed the planet orbiting Fomalhaut, mentioned the Eye of Sauron comparison on Science Friday, one of my favorite radio shows/podcasts.

Here's the link to that show:
http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200811141

Schmei said...

Wait, but they're sure it isn't the eye of Sauron? How sure?

Paul Hornschemeier said...

It's fully possible that we're all doomed. Crap. And I was just starting to look forward to the next four years.