'Eye of Sauron' spotted in deep space

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Billions of light-years away, a cosmic jet bearing a striking resemblance to the eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings is swirling at the heart of a very active galaxy. The unique cosmic body was spotted thanks to 15 years of observations using the Earth-based Very Long Baseline Ar-ray and is helping scientists better understand the anatomy of cosmic jets,powerful beams of plasma and energy that come from black holes, neutron stars, and other celestial bodies. The unique attributes of this "Eye of Sauron" cosmic jet is detailed in a study published August 12 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. "When we reconstructed the image, it looked absolutely stunning," Yuri Kovalev, study co-author and astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, said in a statement.