The Problem With AVATAR's Pandora that the Films Don't Want to Touch

Thanks to Masterworks for  sponsoring today’s video. Is a world like Pandora possible? This question  was buzzing in my head as I left a recent screening of the movie Avatar: The Way of Water. 

I’m sure a lot of you have seen Avatar or its sequel, or at the very least heard about them. But  in case you’ve been living under a rock, or there weren’t any cinemas on the desert island where  you were shipwrecked, here’s the short version. Both Avatar movies are set on Pandora, an  Earth-like moon in the Alpha Centauri A system.

After Earth exhausts nearly all of its natural  resources, humans set their sights on colonizing Pandora, which hosts highly developed ecosystems  of interconnected lifeforms, among them, a species of technologically primitive but physically  evolved humanoids called the Na’vi. There is, of course, a lot more to it – interstellar travel,  genetic engineering and memory implants, all of which are really interesting. But this video is  concerned with the science of Pandora itself.

How much is based on real science? What did  director James Cameron and his team get right? What did they get wrong?

And, although it might  sound farfetched, could there theoretically be a world like Pandora out there? I’m Alex  McColgan, and you are watching Astrum. Join me today for a fun thought experiment, as we turn  our telescopes to the fictional world of Pandora, and analyse the moon’s complex geology,  orbital mechanics, biosphere and atmosphere.

Let’s start by looking at the Alpha  Centauri A system where Avatar is set. Alpha Centauri is a three-star system in the Milky  Way Galaxy, comprised of 2 sun-like stars (Alpha Centauri A and B) and a small red dwarf (Alpha  Centauri C, also known as Proxima Centauri). As the closest neighbouring star system to our  own, it’s a convenient place to visit.

Of course, in interstellar terms, convenience is relative. Alpha Centauri is 4. 37 light years away from  Earth, meaning it would take a spaceship travelling at the speed of Voyager 1 over  70 thousand years to get there.

But let’s assume humanity develops technology capable  of interstellar spaceflight, as it has in the Avatar movies (even though the original’s start  date of 2154 still might be a bit optimistic). Alpha Centauri A actually has a few things going  for it as far as habitability is concerned. Its star is only a bit bigger and brighter than our  Sun, meaning it has a Goldilocks Zone – not too hot, not too cold – around 1.

2 Astronomical Units  from its centre, where liquid water could exist on rocky worlds orbiting it there. A good start for  the science of the film. But despite Pandora’s Earth-like appearance, one notable difference is  that it isn’t a planet.

It’s a moon orbiting the hypothetical gas giant Polyphemus. Here, too, the  films are on a pretty sound scientific footing. There are most likely many more moons  than planets in the Milky Way Galaxy, meaning the chances of finding a moon with the  right conditions for life are that much greater.

And even within our own Solar System, we know of  several moons that could be hospitable to life. Two of those, Europa and Ganymede, orbit  Jupiter, a gas giant like Polyphemus. Enceladus, which orbits Saturn, is another.

But  on all these moons, any potential life would exist in the oceans that we think lie underneath  their frozen surfaces. Pandora, on the other hand, has Earth-like oceans on its surface, which  are on full glorious display in Avatar: The Way of Water. And any surface life would  likely face significant challenges.

Gas giants have intense radiation belts made of electrons and  ions trapped by their strong magnetic fields. So, any life on Pandora’s surface had better be up to  the task of dealing with some serious radiation. There might be offsetting factors, though, such  as a buffer from its atmosphere.

Pandora could also have its own magnetic field for protection,  and there’s some evidence for this explanation. We see indirect evidence in the form of aurorae  and the film’s floating Hallelujah Mountains (both of which I’ll discuss in a bit, so hold that  thought! ) Avatar’s fan wiki proposes the alternate explanation that Pandora resides outside the main  radiation belt, except for one week when it passes through Polyphemus’s night side.

Allegedly, this  is when the aurora occurs on Pandora. Whether or not this was James Cameron’s intention, it seems  that Pandora’s life has evolved to survive in a particularly harsh environment, and I, for one,  wouldn’t question the toughness of the Na’vi! In real life, we have yet to confirm a gas  giant orbiting any of the Alpha Centauri stars, although there is some debate as to whether  a possible giant dubbed Candidate 1 might be orbiting Alpha Centauri A.

Candidate 1 was first  spotted using mid-infrared imaging technology in 2021, which is over a decade after  the first Avatar movie came out. Incredibly, scientists believe it would orbit  right in Alpha Centauri A’s habitable zone. But before you get too excited about the discovery of  a real-life Polyphemus, be aware that scientists still aren’t sure if it’s really an exoplanet  or just an artefact caused by a cloud of dust.

If it is a planet, it would likely have at least  the mass of Neptune – in other words, a gas giant. We’ll have to await further evidence  to evaluate this one. But in 2016, scientists discovered something just as cool  orbiting in Proxima Centauri’s habitable zone: a planet that is Earth-like in size!

Seeing as  Proxima Centauri is a really old and tiny star, there is, however, debate surrounding  how habitable this world really is. Our ability to detect exoplanets has gotten way  better in recent years and continues to improve, so it’s likely we’ll continue to find exoplanets  that are potentially habitable. Regardless, whether or not Alpha Centauri A has a planet  like Polyphemus isn’t crucial to this exercise.

Polyphemus could exist anywhere in the  universe as far as we’re concerned. One of the more unusual aspects of the Avatar  movies is how they handle Pandora’s day-night cycle. In both movies, there is a night-like  phenomenon referred to as “eclipse” by the Na’vi.

This is showcased spectacularly, as Pandora’s  inhabitants experience an ethereal twilight when the moon enters the shadow of its parent planet,  Polyphemus. This is a rather beautiful bit of world-building, as Pandora would likely experience  a regular darkening event, like our rarer total solar eclipses on Earth, which would coincide with  the eclipse of Alpha Centauri A behind its parent planet. These eclipses would probably be  experienced as a relatively short darkening, while a second, longer night phenomenon  would occur due to the moon’s rotation.

I also love how night on Pandora takes on  a twilight appearance. This makes sense, given the relative proximity of Alpha Centauri B,  which would still be an extremely bright star when Alpha Centauri A is occluded. When you factor in  the bioluminescence of Pandora’s many florae and fauna, what you get is a shimmering, twilit world  with enough scientific grounding to pass muster.

As for how long night lasts on Pandora,  James Cameron has yet to spill the beans, but there’s some interesting speculation  among the film’s devoted fan base. Avatar’s fandom wiki conjectures that Pandoran  eclipses are 100 minutes long , and nights are 34 to 35 hours . Since Pandora is probably tidally  locked to Polyphemus, it might take just 60 or 70 hours to complete its orbit.

(Remember, when a  moon is tidally locked to its parent, like ours is, its orbital period and rotation are the same  duration, which is why we always see the same side of the moon from our standpoint on Earth. ) Io  orbits Jupiter in 1. 8 Earth days, for instance, so a 60-hour Pandoran orbit isn’t out of the  question.

This leads to a fascinating inference: if you are on the side of the moon that sees  Polyphemus, it will always be in the same place in the sky, whereas on the far side of Pandora,  you won't see the planet at all – or any eclipses. So, any natives living on the far side might  not even know they’re orbiting a planet! If any of you have your own theories  about Pandora’s day-night cycle, please let me know in the comments.

Your guesses  might be better than the ones I was able to find! Next, let’s talk about Pandora’s atmosphere.  According to the films, it is a mix of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, xenon, methane, ammonia  and hydrogen sulphide.

Unfortunately for humans, the latter three are unbreathable. And the high  quantities of carbon dioxide (allegedly 16 to 18%) are also a no-go for humankind. But humans  developed under the unique atmospheric conditions of Earth.

Theoretically, life under Pandora’s  alien conditions would evolve differently. I appreciate that the movies put a lot  of thought into this. It’s addressed with the anatomy of the Na’vi, who  have special organs called Wichow, which combine carbon dioxide with water  and convert them into oxygen and methane.

Despite Pandora’s high CO2 levels, it also has  higher levels of oxygen than Earth’s atmosphere. Combine this with the oxygen generating wichow and  the Moon’s 20% reduced gravity compared to Earth, and you can see why the fauna on Pandora grows so  big and strong. More oxygen in the atmosphere in the ancient past is why dinosaurs got  to grow so tall on Earth, after all.

Another interesting fact is that Pandora’s  heavier mix of gases and denser atmosphere at sea level means acceleration requires more force.  Humans would experience this like a wind blowing against them as they walk, whereas the Na’vi are  equipped to overcome this resistance with thin, muscular frames and tensile toes for gripping  the ground. Pandora’s unique atmosphere manifests in other ways, too.

My absolute favourite touch  is the aurorae that appear in The Way of Water, which appear bluish and violet. On Earth, most  aurorae are green, which is the product of solar winds exciting oxygen and nitrogen molecules under  a given set of barometric conditions, although we do rarely get red, violet or even yellow auroras.  It’s no surprise that these phenomena might look different on Pandora.

On Jupiter and several  of its moons, for example, aurorae are blue, while on Saturn, they are largely in the  ultraviolet and infrared bands of the spectrum. On Pandora, these different colours could be a  result of differences in atmospheric composition, pressure and the strength of its magnetic  field. So far, I’m actually surprised by how much of Pandora is pretty plausible!

But I  know there’s a question you’re waiting to ask, so let’s get down to it: how realistic are the  film’s iconic floating “Hallelujah Mountains”? Well, there’s good news and bad news. The  good news is physicists at Yale and Penn State say floating masses produced by magnetic  repulsion could, theoretically, be possible.

Unfortunately, you would expect this phenomenon  to require extremely low levels of gravity incompatible with the locale’s iconic waterfalls  and with how gravity is generally represented on Pandora. But there could be another explanation.  After all, the mountains are rich with Pandora’s iconic precious metal unobtanium, which  is described as a powerful superconductor.

In fact, the prospect of mining unobtanium is  what brings humans to Pandora in the first place. In theory, if there were a magnetic bubble  on the moon’s surface, this could produce an effect in the unobtanium-rich mountains similar  to how maglev trains float above their tracks. Given that unobtanium is a theoretical  metal, I’ll give this one an incomplete.

Are floating mountains likely? Not exactly, but  we should at least leave the door open to such a phenomenon being possible. Having said that,  the Hallelujah Mountains are based closely in appearance to the mountains of China's Zhangjiajie  National Forest Park, minus the floating part, so if you want to see the closest thing  to Avatar’s most spectacular feature, you might want to book your next ticket  to Zhangjiajie.

So, there we have it, a walk-through of some of Pandora’s likely,  not-so-likely and seemingly impossible attributes. Overall, I’m really impressed with how well  Avatar held up to this thought experiment. James Cameron has said on several occasions  that Avatar is meant to be a space fantasy, but for a fantasy, it’s one that clearly has a  lot of thought and research put into it.

When you factor in the film’s important message about  ecological preservation, there’s a lot for the scientific community to embrace and appreciate.  And who knows, maybe future discoveries will make some of Avatar’s more outlandish predictions look  prescient? I’m looking at you, floating mountains!

In Avatar, travelling to Pandora is a  multi-billion dollar industry. Our own space industry pales in comparison, making the  film’s start date of 2154 a little optimistic. Luckily, one company is already making  technological innovations in a global market.

And what they’re doing could actually  help you manage last year’s impact on your own investments. Because with Masterworks, almost  anyone can invest in high-value contemporary art, from icons like Picasso, Banksy, and Warhol.  And you’re doing it for a fraction of what billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates pay  to purchase.

Masterworks’ team has built a massive art database, tracking records from auctions  spanning decades. They purchase the art up front, store it for 3-10 years, and if the painting sells  for a profit, you receive your share. In fact, from every one of their 11 exits to date,  Masterworks has delivered over 9% net returns to their investors, with their last three  exits returning 10, 14, and 35 percent net.

To keep up with demand, they release  new offerings on the platform regularly, but there is also a wait list to keep new  offerings from selling out too quickly. Luckily, you can skip Masterworks’ wait list right  now, with the link in the description. Want to see more deep dives into the science  behind other fictional worlds?

Let me know in the comments. A big thanks to my patrons and  members for your support, and especially this week to GDeath for contributing $25, thank you I really  appreciate it. If you want to support too and get access to the new rewards, check the links in the  description.

All the best and see you next time.