Green Lantern’s Light!
http://www.dearastronomer.com/
From the NASA Image of the Day Gallery comes an image that would make Hal Jordan himself proud
A Green Ring Fit for a Superhero – Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s description of the image is as follows:
This glowing emerald nebula seen by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope is 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.
Named RCW 120, this region of hot gas and glowing dust can be found in the murky clouds encircled by the tail of the constellation Scorpius. The ring of dust actually is glowing in infrared colors that our eyes cannot see, but show up brightly when viewed by Spitzer’s infrared detectors. At the center of this ring are a couple of giant stars whose intense ultraviolet light has carved out the bubble, though they blend in with other stars when viewed in infrared.
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. The small objects at the lower right area of the image may themselves be similar regions seen at much greater distances across the galaxy.
If you’d like to see more of these types of rings and help catalog them, you can join the “Milky Way Project” (http://www.milkywayproject.org), which along with “Planet Hunters” (previously covered on Dear Astronomer) are parts of the Zooniverse collection of public data access projects.
Source:NASA Image of the Day Gallery
Ray Sanders is a Sci-Fi geek, astronomer and blogger. Currently researching variable stars at Arizona State University, he writes for Universe Today, The Planetary Society blog, and his own blog, Dear Astronomer
2012-12-04 08:06:14
Source: http://www.dearastronomer.com/2011/06/17/green-lantern%e2%80%99s-light/
Source:
