Elusive Planet Reshapes a Ring Around Neighboring Star (Hubble Discovers Sauron!!!)

Hubblesite.org ^ | June 22, 2005

[orionblamblam]

NASA Hubble Space Telescope's most detailed visible-light image ever taken of a narrow, dusty ring around the nearby star Fomalhaut (HD 216956), offers the strongest evidence yet that an unruly and unseen planet may be gravitationally tugging on the ring.

Hubble unequivocally shows that the center of the ring is a whopping 1.4 billion miles (15 astronomical units) away from the star. This is a distance equal to nearly halfway across our solar system. The most plausible explanation, astronomers said, is that an unseen planet moving in an elliptical orbit is reshaping the ring with its gravitational pull. The geometrically striking ring, tilted obliquely toward Earth, would not have such a great offset if it were simply being influenced by Fomalhaut's gravity alone.

An offset of the ring center from the star has been inferred from previous and longer wavelength observations using submillimeter telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, the Spitzer Space Telescope, Caltech's Submillimeter Observatory and applying theoretical modeling and physical assumptions. Now Hubble's sharp images directly reveal the ring's offset from Fomalhaut.

[orionblamblam]

[Doctor Stochastic]

Inspiration for the Edsel?

[Oberon]

There was never anything wrong with Sauron that a fire truck full of Visine wouldn't have fixed.

[Pyro7480]

Ping!

[Marty]

That looks eerily like a cat's eye.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Fish Mouth link.

[Finger Monkey]

compelling . . .

I wonder where we will find the Ents.

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

That's my boss.

[HairOfTheDog]

Heh....

[hershey]

Amazing, just like a cat's eye.

[orionblamblam]

> I wonder where we will find the Ents.


That's what the Entwives keep asking...

[Physicist]

Uh, oh. It's a ringworld...and it's close.

[RosieCotton]

Whoa...very cool image!

Thanks for the ping!

[Dont_Tread_On_Me_888]

Fomalhaut in Star Trek

STAR TREK: Baptism By Fire

"Captain's Log, Stardate 47123.1. We have just completed a replenishment stop at Starbase 2, and are currently on our way to Fomalhaut, the last known location of the science vessel USS Bloch. Contact was lost seven standard days ago, and we have been assigned to discover the reason why, and implement emergency measures should they become neccessary." Jean-Luc Picard flipped off the recording device and swivelled his chair to watch the stars in the window streak by. The day had been long, and he found himself more easily distracted than usual. He almost didn't notice the door signal some time later. "Come," he said when he finally noticed. The door slid open to reveal his visitor as Commander William Riker.

Riker strode over to the Captain's desk. "Sir, we're entering the Fomalhaut system."

Star Trek Script: Baptism by Fire

[naturalized]

How about this one:

[Finger Monkey]

Okay, are you hiding them?

Where are they, hmmmm?

[El Gato]

Uh, oh. It's a ringworld...and it's close.

Wouldn't that be a hoot! I doubt it's a world, but it is indeed close, only 25 light years away.

A ringworld would be cool, but I don't know about the attendant Kzin, Outsiders, Puppeteers, and especially those Protectors, which are scarier than Kzin.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Great pic. That one is around the internet a lot and I've always liked it. Here's another one I like:

[toddlintown]

Looks like a cosmic orifice.