Even NASA Can’t Resist Making Green Lantern References

As we near the release of that one movie, it seems references to it are everywhere, whether it’s someone trying to pawn off a giant piece of tacky jewelry for $1000, or the upcoming Muppets movie using it as its most recent distraction. Now even NASA can’t help but talk about the superhero and the planet Oa. The newest photo in their “Image of the Day” gallery is titled “A Green Ring Fit For a Superhero.” The glowing emerald nebula was spotted by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope….Oh, let’s just let NASA say it:

[It’s] reminiscent of the glowing ring wielded by the superhero Green Lantern. In the comic books, the diminutive Guardians of the Planet “Oa” forged his power ring, but astronomers believe rings like this are actually sculpted by the powerful light of giant “O” stars, the most massive type of star known to exist.

This bubble is far from unique. Just as the Guardians of Oa have selected many beings to serve as Green Lanterns and patrol different sectors of space, Spitzer has found that such bubbles are common and an can be found around O stars throughout our Milky Way galaxy.

(via NASA)