One analogy to rule them all

Peep was impressed to hear of the first close-up image of the surface of Altair, a Sun-like star beyond the solar system, reported in this week's issue of Science . It was captured by combining the might of four telescopes. Peep was even more impressed by the comment from one of the international team involved, St Andrews University physicist Ettore Pedretti, who wins the Most Lyrical Scientific Analogy Award. He explained:

"Like the lidless staring eye of Sauron in Lord of the Rings , our instrument can peer over great distances to reveal the secrets of the stars."