Eye of Sauron – Fomalhaut’s Debris Ring – NASA Photo

Fomalhaut is a bright star that is located 25 light years away in the constellation Pisces Australis, or the Southern Fish. The above picture is a recent image captured with the Hubble [not Hobbit] Space Telescope. It makes this system look uncannily like the Great Eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. The ring is composed of dust particles in orbit around the star.

The Obama Administration operates a website, called “We the People”. This website solicits petitions from ordinary citizens, with the promise that the Administration will give a formal response to any petition that garners over 10,000 signatures. One such petition asked the government to “secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.” The following is the humorous response:

This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For
By Paul Shawcross

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

• The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
• The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
• Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

These two independent stories are still both linked with their twin conjunction of science and fiction and the humor that this meeting engenders. Both stories prove the old adage that truth is often stranger than fiction and funnier too. This post may be a bit nerdy, probably too much so for some, to them I can but say, “May the Schwartz be with you”, some day. For those other diehard fans, not willing to submit to the Administration’s edict, I offer this photo link.

Scientists dream about doing great things.
Engineers do them.
– James A. Michener