Adam Frank praises "Thor" for blending of classical myth and real science:
As an astronomer, I couldn't miss the variegated interstellar clouds in hues of cobalt and magenta that make up much of the film's cosmic background. They are taken right out from images captured by telescopes like Hubble, Spitzer and Herschel.
Visualizing star-forming clouds in this way is more than just entertainment. It's a process by which the fruits of scientific cosmos building move from the rarified realm of theory into the imaginative resources of the culture as a whole. Now everyone who sees Thor kick some frost-giant butt also knows what star-forming clouds look like, even if they never have to explicitly recognize it. That is the new power of myth.
(Image of the Lagoon Nebula, "a star forming region about 5,000 light-years distant in the constellation Sagittarius," via NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Space Telescope.)
The Dish 