Avatar: Pandora an Exomoon

The Avatar Franchise is a blockbuster movie series created by James Cameron, which so far consists of 2 epic science fiction films. The first part known simply as “Avatar” is the World’s highest grossing film ever made. The sequel which came out in December last year is not too far behind on 3^rd place with a whopping 2 billion dollars   

Now, we all loved Sam Worthington and Britain Dalton in the movies…. trust me I was blushing too, but this article is for all the science geeks out there, so without further ado… SCIENCE! CAMERA! ACTION!  

In the second instalment of this series on The Screen Science blog we will focus more on Pandora and an examination of what the real-world implications would be of living on an Exomoon. 

In Avatar, Pandora is a moon of the fictional Gas Giant “Polyphemus” which is set in the real Alpha Centauri System which is 4.4 light years away making it the closest star system to our own. The Alpha Centauri system is a triple star system: the three stars are- Rigil Centaurus (Alpha Centauri A), Toliman (B) and Proxima Centauri (C). Proxima Centauri is also the closest star to the Sun at 4.3 light years away. Alpha Centauri A and B are the sun-like stars in this system hence creating a binary solar system “Alpha Centauri AB”. To the naked earth-eye these two stars appear to be one and are the 3rd brightest star in the night sky.   

However, while the star system is real the viability of Pandora we see is in doubt. 

For instance, Pandora has thick green forests, untainted sparkling blue waters and even bright sunshine, however the existence of this type of celestial body in the Alpha Centauri System is highly questionable. You see the orbital period in this system is a shocking 79.8 earth years, which means that all the planets are at a significant distance from the suns for too long. The planets and hence their moons would simply be too cold to support such a lifestyle. If the earth were to take that long to complete one revolution, it would freeze over seizing all life from existing. The bright rays of sunshine and the tropical climate would simply not be possible. However, it is important to remember that Polyphemus and Pandora are fictional bodies and hence could have fictional properties such as a core hot enough to keep the planet warm, or the species on the moon may simply not need the photons to thrive as we do.  

Polyphemus is similar to Saturn and Jupiter, however unlike Saturn it has no rings. Visually, Polyphemus resembles a slightly smaller, blue and purple version of Jupiter, with less prominent bands and a larger vortex storm. So, if we were to understand how life on Pandora works, we could compare it to the prominent moons of our very own Gas Giants.  

Saturn  

The rings of Saturn may look beautiful in their “other worldliness” (pun intended) however for those interested in building a life on a moon their reality is terrifying. You see our boy Saturn has a really strong gravitational pull, which caused a lot of comets, asteroids and some of its own moons to shatter and form the ice rings around it. This means that the moons of Saturn are in danger of being eventually sucked into its pull. Bearing that horrific reality in mind let’s look at Titan, the most prominent of Saturn’s moons. It is the largest moon of Saturn and the second largest in our solar system. Titan is an icy moon with a surface of rock-hard water ice, but Titan also likely has a liquid water ocean beneath its surface. It’s also the only moon in the solar system known to have a substantial atmosphere, which is mostly nitrogen like Earth’s. This also means that Titan’s air is dense enough that you could walk around without a spacesuit. But you’d need an oxygen mask and protection from the bitter cold. All these factors indicate that Titan’s subsurface ocean might be a place to potentially find life in.  

Jupiter 

Jupiter has over 90 moons, out of these there are 2 more prominent ones. Lo and Europa. 

• The moon Io is the most volcanically active world in the solar system. Io even has lakes of molten silicate lava on its surface. In fact, Io’s volcanoes are at times so powerful that they are seen with large telescopes on Earth. Because of this Io almost certainly could not support life as we know it. But that’s not to say it couldn’t harbor some form of life as we don’t know it.  

Europa is believed to be the most promising world to look for life in our solar system, due to numerous reasons. Like Earth, Europa is believed to also have a rock mantle and iron core. You might pack a few towels on your next trip over because scientists are almost certain that hidden beneath the icy surface of Europa is a salty-water ocean thought to contain twice as much water as Earth’s oceans combined. Life as we know it requires three base “ingredients” to exist- Liquid water, an energy source and organic compounds to use as the building blocks for biological processes. Europa could have all three of these ingredients, and its ocean may have existed for the whole age of the solar system, long enough for life to begin and evolve there. While it has promising signs for life there are still factors keeping us from jumping to conclusions. Europa has an extremely thin oxygen atmosphere — far too thin for humans to breathe. It is also a darker world; Europa orbits Jupiter, the fifth planet from the Sun. Jupiter orbits the Sun at about 484 million miles (778 million kilometers).  

FACT HAT

Europa has been the setting or subject of several video games which i’m sure you’ve heard of, including “Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare” and “Galaga: Destination Earth” which happen to be some of my favourites. It has also been featured in several movies and books, like the 2013 film “Europa Report”.

“THE STARS DON’T LOOK BIGGER, BUT THEY DO LOOK BRIGHTER.” 

– Nasa Astronaut Sally Ride