In theory it would also allow you to build a craft capable of drilling to the Earth's molten iron core to deposit several nuclear bombs in case our dynamo ever shut down.
The notion of a habitable world orbiting a gas giant was explored in depth by Robert Sawyer's 'Quintaglio' books. The fact that the main continent was always pointed away from the gas giant let to a major plot point of what happened when explorers traveled to the far side of the moon for the first time, and discovered this gigantic object in the sky, which became their god.
@@Sabuufa The first 2 books are Galileo and Charles Darwin's stories, told through the medium of dinosaurs, where the society is quite different - individuals are highly territorial and go into a literal killing frenzy if there's too much crowding for example. I enjoyed reading them, when I last read them anyway, the fact I remember them at all after nearly 30 years is a testament to that.
@@peglor A very different one that has a more high-tech look at it is "Catseye"... but there's like 100 novels with that in the name and I can't remember the author. Attempting to look it up failed. All I remember is the cover art is a partially glowing gas giant. Anyways...this one was a planet Humans colonized that wasn't inhabited when they got there. The name Cat's Eye for the gas giant is due to how it faintly glows on the night side. The cloud patterns partially obstruct the glow and thus it kinda looks like.. that. Notably in this story the moons orbits with a period similar to a month on Earth, and isn't tidally locked. But the day length is more like an Earth week. Which has the interesting effect of making nights a bit colder than Earth. Especially "true night" which is when you're on the part of the planet that is not lighted by either the sun or Cat's Eye. Oh yeah, it's also a bit colder than Earth. But that's due to being just a bit farther from it's sun.
I lived in Alaska for 23 years, and one of the best auroras I've ever witnessed had green, blue, violet, red, and white in it. And it really danced (meaning it moved and jumped around quickly. Some auroras just slowly drift by.) We even caught this on camera. Absolutely breathtaking.
I lived in Toronto most my life, I moved 5 hrs east of Thunder bay 3 years ago. Seen about 5 Auroras so far but with no color, all were white and could be mistaken for clouds if the weren't so bright
Cameron has already revealed the main antagonist of the next film will be a fire tribe of na'vi similar to how there were water tribes in the latest film. If Pandora is tidally locked I'm fascinated by a possibility that there could be a "twilight" tribe that lives in this eternal darkness. A cinematic challenge no doubt
@@rosyidharyadi7871 nope, Cameron has said that there will be a fire nation called the "ash people," and they'll be much less friendly than the water na'vi, probably playing a villain role in some capacity
I hate to crush your hopes, but I think if it was tidally locked, it would be permanently facing the planet, not the star, so there would still be day and night time. But, depending on the axial tilt of both the moon and the planet, there could be some sort of twilight on the polar regions of the moon? Sort of like an eternal sunset?
@Birbology ! Good point. If they find evidence that it once had a "Great Spot" - type cyclone (and only one such storm), but no longer does, then it might be a fun reference to the Odyssey (since Odysseus gouged out his only eye in self-defense). Of course by the time we get information *that* precise on the planet, we likely would've named it long ago.
There should be international law, that if a science fiction work predict some phenomenon, and it is later discovered to be real, then it has to be named after that scifi.
If Pandora had a very short orbital period around Polyphemus, then it would be deep in the radiation belt. Better if it's more like Callisto's distance from Jupiter. But what sci-fi maker can resist close-ups of a gas giant? Cameron deserves a medal for restraint in not giving Polyphemus unrealistic rings. I think of the floating mountains like the giant wave in Interstellar - a scientifically implausible liberty taken because it's awesome in a movie that otherwise tries to ground itself in the possible. Ditto the giant tree.
Came here to say just this and saw your comment. Anything that close to a gas giant, the amount of radiation bombarding that surface, I highly doubt anything could survive let alone flourish.
@@erdrickcapet3945 Yes, to live around a gas giant, you'd probably need far enough away from it for it not to look spectacular in the night sky. A shame, perhaps. Gas giants also have dangerously powerful magnetic fields.
According to the wiki Pandora sits just outside the main radiation belts of the Gas Giant. During it’s transit of Polyphemus’s night side however, the moon passes through the planet’s magnetotail and gets an absolute walloping of radiation, leading to intense Aurora in the sky. Pandoran life is well adapted to resist such ionising radiation, however the humans need treatment for radiation sickness, have to take Iodine and seek radiation protection areas during solar storms. Pandora also has a strong Magnetic Field, given the existence of the “Flux Vortex” being an interaction between the planet and moon’s fields. The Unobtanium in the Moon’s core as it travels through Polyphemus’s field likely supercharges Pandora’s field. The thick atmosphere also provides some degree of shielding as well.
I like to think that Unobtainium is very sensitive to magnetic fields, just like how neodymium magnets have a much stronger magnetism than ceramic magnets
Now that I've watched the whole video, I'm glad you touched on the aurora. That would be an indicator that Pandora has a magnetic field. Given that it is rich in superconducting minerals, this would only serve to enhance the magnetosphere of the planet. It makes sense that it would have one powerful enough to protect from the radiation belt.
Now I'm wondering, wouldn't the magnetic field of the gas giant induce currents in Pandora? Especially if it has a large superconducting core? This should be more than enough to generate an absolutely monstrous magnetic field for Pandora, though the prospect of superconducting materials being able to remain superconductive in such conditions seems impossible.
It might also be both, with the strong magnetic field bringing the radiation down to levels survivable for the native life which evolved under it. (Which sadly means that the clock is ticking for Jake's son on the second movie.)
Well, a magnetic Firld would help the Habitability along. Because this Field shields a Planet from solar Winds. Which is good, if You are interested of having an Atmosphere. You know - Breathing and Stuff...
Best explanation i have is condensation. Water evaporated from the planet surface condense in the lower pressure and clings to the surface of the floating mountains, creating runoff
We only witnessed the floating mountains for moments. There is nothing saying that that was not a cumulative watershed effect that was only happening during that time. They might accumulate water for months and then cataclysmicly shed it over days.
@@trequor most superconductors need to be chilled to work properly - if unobtanium is naturaly chilling itself then that might be the case- aka not only it would make the mountains fly but it would make them kinda chilly thus making condensation on them easier - but then that would probaly impact the vegetation in negative way.
@@krzosu well according to the lore that isn't a problem for unobtainium - it remains superconducting right up to its melting point of over 1500 degrees, and for that reason it's used to control the antimatter reactions in the engines of the ISVs. The mineral interacts with the Pandoran flux vortices in such a way during its volcanic formation that it essentially crystallizes magnetic potentials at the quantum level within its structure.
Um the fouting mountains are from magnetic feilds. Why wouldnt the water flow along the gravity rings? End up in the same place the land did. Floating in this specific way.
I could watch hours of just fictional documentaries set on pandora. The human conflict is something i oersonally would cut in favor of telling Navi Stories.
Yeah I second this, like I don't care for a story on human greed and war and conflict or anything, just show me the wonders and marvels of all the amazing animals and plants and different Na'vi groups on Pandora, please! Like we need a tv series of documentaries on just the Na'vi and the fauna and flora!
I've never seen an Avatar movie. My religion forbids watching movies with blue, sentient creatures. J/K. Seriously though, many people have gotten 'spoiled' from seeing the beauty of a fictional world, and can't appreciate the real beauty of our amazing world. So, I'm not sorry that I didn't watch them. I probably will eventually.
I haven't seen the new movie, but I loved the old movie as a kid. There's something about dystopian but still futuristic human culture that grips me, even if it's mostly American culture. It gets me moreso when there's interaction between two communities like that, first contact stories (and first contact by us, done wrong) fascinate me to no end because I loved coming up with ideas on how it could've been handled better and more peaceably. And I didn't even get to mentioning cool mechs or crazy VTOL craft juxtaposed with natives, they're so deeply detailed and I think it's because that's how the Navi would see them too. You'd have to be searching for weak points or things you can exploit so you kind of have to be looking for detail.
In China, Avatar 2 was surpassed by a local Chinese sci-fi epic called The Wandering Earth 2. I find it quite curious that both films deal with Alpha Centauri as the main target for human survival, and reflect on the limits of today's technology.
Cartoons need there planets ship fleets? Try designing one in children cartons! The company pland was cooked about maintaining Pandora? Keep useing if on let's see who needs it more!
Ag AQ it's not solid Lq.pure LQ can't frezzs! So freezer is limited on a diff side for cartoons re do! Thanks for rockets! 👽🚀⚖️🐝🕸️Spyder man don't work with bees! Retard! Extra is better? So others can use his black yellow mustard? So plants he don't do also! Just work with1/4 of Pandora and well see what the landing is! Cage is for size type. Rockets how stacks! If usa knows how to next sectional reasons to fine out .y freezers shape stuff was portol intrees also! When magic runs low are fades off does to not add to that planet! Spacex could have new about Pandora. The CD for the navigation planet?
@@sjsomething4936 It happens to me sometimes too, you type an answer in a hurry to notice later that you just write an unintelligible collection of nonsense. XD
I add to the floating mountains as a possibility that they AREN'T non-living chunks of rock in the air, but a living organism that has other tiny organisms controlling it entirely similar to coral, they create billions of air sacs that help keep the organism afloat, and the surface of the organism looks like rock because of it's peculiar armor that it uses for defense and camoflauge. I speculate these organisms are preyed on by flying creatures that favor the tiny organisms that create the air sacs, and to protect themselves, they'll sometimes lower themselves down to the surface so that they can blend in with the mountainous regions they hail from.
This is a nice answer, but it only works wonder under water because of the gas vs water huge difference in density. I take it, you mean that those huge mountain is actually and empty balloon that floats like zeppelin, right? Outside of the huge chunk of rock, we also see much smaller rocks along the root/vine that extend from the bigger rock. We can clearly see that these are pure rock with no floating power of their own. So those giant rocks also need to pull up the smaller rocks all around, including the vegetation on top of them all. Oh, vegetation. It would also be pretty hard for vegetation to grow on the mountain if most of its actual mass is actually hollow. That aside, i'm sorry that i also cant explain the floating mountain myself. Any kind of magnetic/electric/physical force that i can think of that can maintain it passively should be harmful to the living organism around it.
You clearly put a lot more thought into this than the writers did, but even then they would be bouncing around all over the place whenever anyone touches them and would certainly sink under the weight of all the vegetation and the dirt needed to support said vegetation Not to mention if it was a form of life it would be completely isolated from any food/nutrients, birds can’t fly forever for the same reason
These avatar movies are different than just normal movies imo, they are more an experience and an escape from everything and i absolutely love them, especially at the cinema. Can't wait for the future avatar movies.
It's a fairly simplistic SF / Drama. But I recommend anyone to go see it in 3D in the cinema, it is a highly immersive experience unmatched by any movie, except perhaps "Sanctum" by the same director. Some would call the experience transformative, and personally I experienced some of what people described as "crashing hard from a high" when exiting the cinema after the movie ended.
The Expanse isn't "very possible", in its general contours it's the future. There will be space mining for the simple reason that (eventually) it will cost less to mine iridium and other high-value elements in the asteroid belt than on Earth. Mining creates settlements, as we've seen over millennia of human history. Settlements bring society, which spawns other industries. Now you've got a space economy. Putting aside the drama and liberties taken with scientific details, The Expanse nailed our future.
Very good vid. I have to point out though that oxygen is not why dinosaurs got as big as they did. A combination of hollow bones, efficient breathing and egg laying. During some periods oxygen was actually lower, yet dinosaurs still remained large. Although this is just a nitpick. Again great video
As a Communications Engineering graduate, I found this video extremely interesting. The technology itself was astounding and the explanations were outstanding. Such videos would have been very helpful in my student life.
I think unobtainable is the most interesting thing about this franchise. It’s a superconductor that has a magnetic field which is not what we observe in reality. Such a sci-fi metal would allow us to make extremely powerful and controlled magnetic fields. So yes the mountains do act as a sort of magnet probably being drawn to Polyphemus’ magnetic field until it gets to an altitude where gravity takes over so you get various mountains floating at various altitudes.
Based on the changing position of Polyhemus in the sky during both movies, Pandora is not tidaly locked. Sometimes we see it high in the sky, sometimes just touching the horizon, and a few times intersecting it.
@JulesStoop they were likely at least in the same area. Like maybe an area of a few hundred km tops. Since the humans could reach all the na'vi areas with ground vehicles in seemingly relatively short time. And most na'vi travel was done on ground level as well.
@@damianmandras8283 Correction, life as we know it. There could be intelligent life out there that's a lot more adapted to high radiation and the like. Heck there could be intelligent life out there that we might not even immediately recognize as life. We only have 1 example of life after all, our own planet. A laughably small sample size to make generalizations about what is and isn't possible for life. And red dwarfs can be active for literally trillions of years (by comparison, our sun will die after around 10 billions years total) That's a lot of time for even the smallest of chances to become a reality.
@@damianmandras8283 Proxima Centauri is, but Centauri A and B are both main sequence yellow dwarfs and Pandora orbits a gas giant which orbits Centauri A according to the movie.
One interesting issue regarding a tidally locked moon (which would be almost all moons in most star systems) would be that there would be a higher prevalence of the night and twilight compared to light day. This is not necessarily a bad thing, on the contrary: The gas giant would shelter and act as a shield, diminishing the amount of harmful radiation that could reach from the star. Also, as the star development during millions of years increases the amount of radiation and heat, the moon would be able to adapt much easily than a planet to such changing conditions, thus protecting life.
The radiation from the planet is the biggest problem for life. If unobtanium is a superconductor, though, its occurrence on Pandora could mean a far bigger magnetosphere than a moon would generally have.
Wouldn't the higher prevalence of night time compared to day (at least on the side facing the gas giant) create a runaway cooling effect? If there's more night than day, then wouldn't it cool down more than the day can heat it up, essentially covering the facing-side of the moon in ice? I was thinking of this while watching and trying to imagine a reason why this *wouldn't* happen, but couldn't think of one.
@@foosic1742 - depending on the size of the gas giant it might be giving off large amounts of infrared generated by its own gravitational contraction. That could heat the side of the moon facing the planet. And that's assuming the moon is tidally locked, which will largely depend on its distance from the gas giant and their relative masses. If the moon is tidally locked then its day/night cycle will be determined by its orbit around the planet and not its own rotation around its axis. The length of that day/night cycle as well as the diameter of the moon and the thickness of the atmosphere will largely determine the climate. If Pandora is less than half the size of Earth then you'd need to half the length of the day/night cycle to about 12 hours to keep an atmospheric circulation pattern like Earth's: the coriolis effect has to be high enough to form Hadley cells in the tropics and a polar front or else atmospheric circulation collapses down to a single cell per hemisphere, meaning equatorial jungles, icy polar deserts and nothing but cool semi-arid scrub and savannah between the two. There'd be no jetstream, no temperate rain bands, no deciduous or taiga forests, no bread baskets of civilisation.
I LOVE your videos!!! Not just narration, you provide opinions, and delve deep. Providing extra content like this just adds to the interest. THANK YOU!
I think the mountains wouldn’t be possible under two teslas, as stated in the movie. Superconductor or not, that would require about 100000 Tesla to lift those mountains which is like magnetic field of neutron star. In that magnetic field, your blood will fly one way, while water will fly another.
I would like to see the science of a plant based neural link to animals and restoring consciousness via its connections too. Supposedly there was an intense battle scene he cut from the movie because of current world events and violence but I bet it was stellar, hope its in the extended cut.
It makes no sense biologically, but there's always the possibility the whole planet was engineered by a lost civilisation. Perhaps they will return in great annoyance to find that their system administrators have forgotten their duty and some upstart savages are mining the computational substrate for shiny rock.
Wanna know the biggest problem with the "we took all resources from earth, now we going to get more from other planets" plot? It's that if you have the technology from avatar, then you can get an almost unending amount of resources in our solar system. The asteroid belt between mars and Jupiter alone is supposed to contain more water in ice form then a thousand earths, and the amount of rare metals in there is absurd. So they made up some "unobtainion" sci-fi stuff because making an actual good plot is hard. Hell, look at dune. They actually pulled an "unobtainion" before the term was even invented, but the book is so well written that it makes complete sense.
They don't go to Pandora due to a lack of resources, they go there to mine Unobtanium which fuels the industry that in turn rapidly depletes Earth's resources. The idea is that humanity is unfit to ethically utilize Unobtanium due to industrial/corporate greed. Them turning to Pandora in the second film is a colonization effort as consequence of those actions.
@@MirandaAndUh Unless that's stated in the second movie, I never heard that before. I do know they say earth will die in the second movie without unobtanium for some reason, that reason being "we did not though about that AGAIN", just like they didn't think about how after the first movie earth would just send a real full on army and just orbital bombard every single part of Pandora with any semblance of life. Oh right, it's because that's not something that happens on dance with wolves.
That's not what they say at all, by the way. It seems paying attention is beyond your abilities, so I'll just clarify that they're not saying Earth will die without Unobtanium (which is also not the case in the first movie) but that it is dying because it has been depleted of its natural resources... a result of Unobtanium usage. Why is it always these people who insist Avatar is just Dances With Wolves like a bunch of preprogramed goons that don't understand the entire point of the movie?
@@MirandaAndUh So, earth is dying because of lack of resources related with the manufacturing of unobtainable. And how exactly that is different from LACK FO RESOURCES IN GENERAL? Also, yes, it is just dance with wolves BUT WORST. And thanks for proving my point by attacking me instead of offering an actual response. You want to gush about the blue furries and the "humans be evil... Because!" narrative vomited by a hack who claims that testosterone is toxic, then expect that some of us who actually read a book or two and developed some standards to not be so easily swayed by the pretty colours.
@@caiocbcn Earth is dying because the biosphere is collapsing. It was revealed in the game, so lack of resources have nothing to do with it. Humans are not evil in Avatar universe, only RDA is. What they are doing to Pandora, they did to Earth before. Later in the movies, Earth will be of course saved and humans and Na'vi will live in peace. And Cameron never said that testosterone is toxic, that was a hoax based on misinterpretation of his words.
We can feel that James Cameron takes good care to polish every little detail in his movies ! that's what makes them so great ! There is only one thing that bother me with Avatar: All the fauna seems to have evolved to a 6 limbs creatures! the na'vi are the only exception to that! does that mean some catastrophy happened? or maybe even the na'vi are alien to this world? We can go very far and think that maybe they are the result of the human federation experiment to create a humanoid creature on this planet! hence the avatar program !
There actually is an explanation for why the Na'vi have 4 limbs in the first movie, though it is hard to explain without images. Basically the Na'vi are not the only 4 limbed creatures on pandora, in the first movie we see creatures called Prolemurus who are the closest living relative of the Na'vi, like the Na'vi they have lost 2 of their 4 eyes, have lost one of their neural queues and have hair on their heads, most importantly they have 2 and a half limbs, they used to have 6 limbs but over time their 2 sets of forelimbs have fused up to the elbow Not only that but the prolemurus have 2 fingers on each of their 4 hands and the Na'vi have 4 fingers on each of their 2 hands which leads us to presume that in the evolutionary history of the Na'vi they ones had 4 forelimbs each ending in 2 fingered hands which then fused over time The prolemurus are a living missing link between the Na'vi and the other animals of pandora This whole thing will be a lot easier to understand if you look up what prolemurus looks like, their arms are pretty interesting This fusing of limbs is the reason why Na'vi also can't punch, their arms just aren't developed for it, their hand and wrist bones arent built to take the impact
@@kieramcadams4103 the prolemurus don't actually have 6 limbs or 4, they are in a stage of transition from 6 limbs to 4 limbs, the same way that the Na'vi lost their extra limbs due to the 4 forelimbs fusing together
There are lemur-like creatures on Pandora that have 4 partially merged arms, the upper part of the arms is merged into one while the part below the elbow is split into 2 pairs of arms. Maybe they are an inbetween step of the evolution of the Na'vi where their 4 arms fully merged into 2 arms. Or maybe they just lost a pair of limbs over time like how whales lost their hind limbs. Or maybe the Na'vi just have different lines of ancestors than the other creatures there.
What would the planet's gravity do to the moon? Thinking about about the inner moons of Jupiter are basically ripped apart by the intense gravity of Jupiter
It would have more volcanic activity, but that wouldn't make it uninhabitable. Earth has quite a lot of volcanic activity as well compared to other planets in our solar system after all.
I'm just a major fan of anything bioluminescence, which made me fall in love with the world of Pandora very quickly . I just wonder how likely it is for planets dominated with bioluminescent life to exist out there.
I mean certain parts of our ocean fit that description. I suppose the question is how likely it is that the surface and atmoshere of a planet would be dominated by bioluminescent life.
@@jeffbenton6183 Yes. This is what I mean. Just imagine walking through a bioluminescent version of Central Park in Manhattan. Or perhaps how we can possibly use bioluminescent plants and life to our advantage such as a replacement for streetlights.
@@jacksonbarkerthebluehairedfox I think in india we have forest of bioluminescent actually there are some mushrooms, Herb's and plants which glow in dark in monsoon ( rainy season) it glows more you can visit it
The question is what bioluminescence does for life on Pandora? Like flowers are bright to attract pollinators while fruit is bright to get animals to eat it and defecate the seeds out elsewhere. Seeing the abundance of bioluminescence in plant life on Pandora might be wanting to imply a similar function... BUT why is this actually better then just simple bright colors seen in daylight? Answer: it very probably is not because maintaining that pretty glow (well beyond anything you see here on earth) all night ends up needing too many resources for any extra attraction factor. They'd be out competed. You could still force a confirmation bias with more explanation, like maybe Pandoran animals can't detect regular colors well enough, but we know this isn't true of the Na'vi so why not others?
@@blacksage2375 The answer is simple: there is so much bioluminescence and only tammed eclipse "night" because it's a movie searching to be visually appealing. An horror film like Pitch Black did the absolute opposite choice to serve the scenario. There is no point to search scientific explanations inside that Pocahontas rip-off blockbuster series. It's really not that deep in every level.
I've wondered about the factor of the Roche limit. A body of given size/density, if located within the Roche limit of the parent body it orbits, will be torn apart by tidal stress. This is the cause of Saturn's ring system. Visually it seems possible that Pandora might be too close to remain intact.
What about tides on Pandora??? Since, according to your video, Pandora is not tidally locked with its home planet, and since the home planet is MUCH larger (and presumably more massive) than Pandora itself, then the tidal effects of the home planet on Pandora's oceans would be ENORMOUS. On Earth, with a relatively small single moon, we experience tides that can often range from 10-20 feet, depending on the local geography. On Pandora, the tides would be immensely bigger. This would have major consequences for any areas near a Pandoran ocean.
Floating mountains are probably unlikely as depicted in the film. Perhaps if there are some magnetic forces involved, maybe combined with gravitational effects of the gas giant the moon orbits (so floating mountains would only be on the side facing Polyphemus?), and toss in a thick enough atmosphere and make the mountains out of material that's relatively low mass to boost their buoyancy. Like Alex mentions in this video, I agree that the waterfalls just wouldn't happen - aside from where all that water is coming from, would whatever forces that allow the floating land allow for the water to fall instead of just float away?
They went to all that effort for the world building and then made a plot that was pretty awful and badguys who were more two dimensional than cardboard cutouts...
P.S. "Unobtanium" is a silly name for Pandora's Anti-gravity mineral. A better, more appropriate, name would have been "Upsidaisyum".(with apologies to Rocky and Bullwinkle).
Good video, thank you. I wasn't hooked by the Avatar storyline but the film is beautiful. A similar video on the planets shown in Interstellar or Dune (Arrakis) would be good.
It's not really oxygen that contributes to large flora and fauna. Plants feed on carbon dioxide. High atmospheric carbon dioxide is what allows for massive plant growth, and in turn massive animals which feed on those plants.
Might be true, but there are limiting factors. Plants feed on CO2, but they still need to breathe oxygen. Likewise herbivores need oxygen to get the energy they need to move around, graze, and perhaps also to digest their food.
Their imagination was full of nothing but making a beautiful world only to add humans in there and ruin everything by war. And they had a lot of whale hunting on their minds. But they never imagined a good plot...
Seeing this video talks about many speculative biology topics, Id recommend the channel Curious Archive. They have a series dedicated to these kind of works. Not just alien biology but fantasy biology and also how life on Earth would be like millions of years in the future. Etc.
10:15 You're thinking of the insects of the Carboniferous, Dinosaurs did not grow this large because of higher oxygen concentration. Insects heavily benefit from this and are size limited by oxygen levels because their way of taking in oxygen involves the oxygen just passively diffusing into their skin. The larger any object gets, the interior volume grows at a faster rate than its surface, meaning that a larger insect has to be able to provide a larger body with relatively less skin to breathe with, limiting their size depending on the oxygen levels. But that’s not how lungs work, and Dinosaurs were not breathing these insanely high levels of oxygen as in the Carboniferous anyway In fact, the oxygen levels of the Mesozoic, the era of the Dinosaurs, was estimated (relative to modern levels) at 80% in the Triassic, 120% in the Jurassic, and 150% in the Cretaceous Period. This wouldn’t explain the Sauropods, the largest land animals of all time, existing since the Triassic
Small correction: it is not widely accepted that during the Mesozoic era there were more oxygen than now. As far as I know, most experts do not think it's true, and there is no evidence of it. Other than that, it's a really nice video. I learned a lot, thank you!
I heard before from a documentary that there was considerably more oxygen back then. That doesn't mean it's true of course, but there must've been some reason why some scientists (or at least science enthusiasts) in the past thought that there was more oxygen back then. Would you happen to know where this idea came from?
@@jeffbenton6183 Unfortunatly, I do not know what is the exact source of this idea. However, it looks to me like it is really old (I might have seen something like it in old russian textbooks, but I am not shure about that). After some searching, It appers that it is not so much the lack of evidence, as absence of consensus. As a modeling study from 2016 states: "The results of such studies differ greatly, to the extent that today’s atmospheric mixing ratio of 21% might be either the highest or lowest level during the past 200 m.y. " (Benjamin J.W. Mills et al, 2016). It seems that different studies look at different aspects (like air trapped in ancient amber, gasses trapped in rocks and paleobotanical evidence), and all of their results do not really agree with each other. I am not an expert in this field, far from it, but if I had to bet, I would say that Mesozoic was a thery long era and surely O2 levels flactuated during it, but I doubt that they ever reached anything close to the Carboneferous, and most likely were much closer to the modern levels.
I only remember reading about them being higher during the Cretaceous period rather than the entirety of the Mesozoic era. But I have never been exposed to a consensus the other directly, interesting.
@@absentfish1706 Air, or gasses in general, can easily diffuse through thin solid matter. Amber is generally not large and thick enough to not allow diffusion of air particles and molecules. Gasses in rocks however might be the best we have as evidence of past atmosphere mixtures. Despite this even gasses trapped in rocks don't show much signs of high O2 levels in the past.
Perhaps somewhere far away in another Galaxy or within our Galaxy there may be world like Pandora..... we will never meet them neither they will , they are busy in their own life and we too 💔💔💔
After watching the two Avatar movies, do you really want humanity to get out of this solar system alive? I think it's best if humanity dies on this planet, and doesn't spread anywhere else.
Dan Simmons’ ‘Hyperion’ written in the 80s has floating islands that are explained to be fully alive with motility and sentience .. perhaps the inspiration?
@10:21 , more oxygen in the atmosphere didn't allow dinosaurs to grow bigger. Blue whales are larger than dinosaurs so if that was the limiting factor, they couldn't have gotten that big. This is compounded by two facts: 1. Dinosaurs likely had the highly efficient unidirectional respiratory system characteristic of birds (which allows them to exert themselves at altitudes at which we'd asphyxiate at). 2. Blue whales are holding their breath the majority of the time and usually use ~85% of the oxygen that they inhale. So relatively low concentrations of oxygen in the atmosphere would have an even larger impact on a whale than it would a sauropod dinosaur.
I've never had an interest in these movies. So I am pleasantly shocked at how much they thought about the world building as far as the environment goes. I probably wouldn't notice it consciously while watching but subconsciously it would make the film reality vibe alive.
If you either watch the Birdman’s Everything Wrong With CinemaSins Avatar video or Google the word unobtanium, you would know it’s not as stupid as you think. By definition, it’s either a fictional metal that does not exist, or is a real material that’s hard to come by because of extreme rarity or really high cost.
@@Lightman0359 Well, what else were they suppose to call an unknown rare - fictional - costly metal? Are they to make up a name? So what if they use an existing word that can be applied both in fiction and real life?
@@Lightman0359You might have a point except the naming conventions for newly discovered elements goes fairly in line with the name. We don’t get an official name until one of the scientific governing bodies meet to give it an official name and it gets recognition and acceptance. For example until a name was decided Nobelium was called Unnilbium. Dubnium was Unnilpentium. So Unobtanium while a bit on the nose does go along with that convention.
The thing with moons is that there is no actual day and night. There is the rotation of the moon, creating day and night. And the rotation around the planet, creating a half month of day/night cycles and a half month worth of night (being in the schadow of the planet). So that life would have to cope with 25 % daytime and 75 % nighttime... Its possible I guess but seems odd.
About the “Unobtanium”, I think it can actually be metallic hydrogen, which is known to be a room temperature superconductor. That way it can stay suspended in the magnetic flux, thus creating the hallelujah maintains and everything else. According to some of the theories, immense pressure inside the big gas giants can create metallic hydrogen and this metallic hydrogen can keep its metallic state even after there is no pressure. My theory is that, in the past, two gas giants may have been collided and the metallic hydrogen got thrown out. After some time, just like our moon, pandora could be created from the debris cloud.
Theres an old MMO that never had much popularity called Shores of Hazeron. Habitable moons orbiting gas giants were always my favourite places to colonize. Theyre so pretty!
The second movie didn’t make sense to me. Humans have apparently made earth unlivable so they’re moving to a planetoid that’s under extreme radiation, has an atmosphere with toxic gasses, and that has 16-18% CO2??? Like if they think they can terraform that how can they not terraform earth that is already pretty good or just build space cities where they can create the exact requirements for human life? They obviously have the advanced technology. Or we know it’s possible they can create alien biology through genetic manipulation, why not just engineer human bodies to better survive earth? First movie made more sense, they’re mining rare resources, however other planetoids in the star system should have the same resources right? We aren’t they mining them but the one that has life??? The only other known place in the universe that has life?
It will make more sense later. Earth is becoming uninhabitable because biosphere is dying. You can fix that with terraforming. Pandora is the best option because you still have water and food there.
10:11 Because of the low gravity, would it not be that the trees are thinner and weaker? After all, there would not be much resistance for them to grow.
8:42 That would also mean that Na'vi on the Polyphemus-facing side of Pandora could use it as a point of reference for travelling, just as humans used stars, thus Na'vi on this side being much more connected (commercially, culturally...) than on the other side, or they could just have a much poorer knowledge of astronomy
How about gravitational effect of the nearby planet on especially Pandora's oceans and seas? In the movie, it doesn't seems notable, but in reality you can only think of how much a small moon like earth's has on our oceans and seas activities.
If our civilization survives for a thousand years, the laws of physics will be very different, because it's only a model of reality made by humans. Not the full picture of reality.
My major gripe with Avatar (which is one of my favourite movies!) is the indigenous lifeforms. On Earth, all of what could be described as the "higher" lifeforms have the same body pattern (four limbs being the most obvious trait). On Pandora, that is also almost true - all of them have a six-limb body pattern - except the Na'vi. Where exactly are their evolutionary ancestors/cousins? For me, it's the only thing that spoils an otherwise willing suspension of disbelief! Great analysis Alex, thanks for excellent content as usual.
If humans are advanced enough to modify genes and interstellar travel, can't they just farm raw materials from asteroids or space dust and synthesize the substance they want on Pandora?
You should discuss the concept of the planet being almost a supercomputer, considering how the root systems and all the life connect and act as almost a brain… really cool to think about
meanwhile, dropping off a single, or at least two more BOR7 unit(s) on that said-rock, and then sit back and let those said-Old One era/pre-Sirius era units do their....work.
You mean exactly like the symbiosis between mushrooms and trees in the real world? Mycelial networks connect trees, allow them to communicate with each other, and help to bring water to the trees.
Could a gas giant form within the habitable zone of a star? Or would the habitable zone for the moon be based on the moons distance from the gas giant (i.e. the gas giant itself is providing the habitable zone for the moon)? And if so (the gravity of the gas giant provides the energy via tectonics, etc) would that moon have enough light for plant photosynthesis?
The very idea of searching for, mining, and transporting resources to Earth from another star system is so absurd that I've never watched any of those movies. I've always wondered why people come up with such nonsense when there are enough resources in the solar system to sustain humanity for thousands of years of development...
12:42 Not plausible either, if those mountains were filled with unobtanium, then there’s no reason they try to take down the large tree. They could’ve just mine the floating mountains
The logistics may be tricky. It’s a floating mountain, so the big mining equipment couldn’t be used, and they don’t know how much is necessary to float, so they’re probably worried about the terrain collapsing under them.
@@aidanhammans9337 Tow it out into space? Either way, one has to ask why the earth under the tree hasn't detached itself and floated off. Roots holding it down? Also, why the big mountains. Shouldn't unobtanium gravel levitate? In which case, the mountain might not be a solid mass, but bits held together by magnetic forces.
interesting prospect... if the earth was tidaly locked like pandora orbiting a gas giant and the center face would be the middle east jerusalem mekka lengh degree then basically the natives of the americas would never know they orbit a gas giant and probably the japanese, nz and a couple more
The *big* problem I have with the Avatar franchise is that we don't need Unobtainium to make the global vactrain system the Resources Development Corporation runs, it's more of a construction issue.
Not sure what is the hypothetical methane concentration in Pandora's atmosphere, but between 5 and 15% Methane is explosive under our oxygen concentration, so, don't fire your rifles against the native population. Methane is not actually toxic but can asphixiate you if it replaces enough of the Oxygen. Hydrogen sulfide is also explosive in a wider range (4 - 45 %) and also very toxic at much lower concentrations.
I was a bit dismayed the space travel bit at the end got cut off. Are you planning to do a video about the interstellar spaceflight technology in the movies? That'd be cool.
Alex, huge fan been watching for years and have seen all your videos starting from a realistic representation of the solar system. Last time I commented it was asking for a new video on venus and i like to think my comment wasnt overlooked because you delivered as you always do. Im always excited when i get a notification that you or Astrum Extra posted a new video. Anyways i was wondering if youve seen the netflix show “3 Body Problem” it incorporates aliens, quantum physics, and has a great story to it based on the Wow signal. I wanted to know if you thought maybe “3 Body Problem” was more realistic than alien, avatar, interstellar, or any other movies youve covered. Thanks!
my problem: only humanoids breath through their mouths & have 4 extremities. all other animals have breathing holes on the neck & 6 extremities. the humanoids had to have evolved from something reasonably physiologically similar, but there is no evidence of this presented.
There's a lemur-like primatey thing with partially fused forelimbs that it uses to swing through trees like a gibbon. If i recall it has one upper arm with two lower arms protruding from the elbow. People think this is meant to be evidence of where the Naavi came from. It has other features similar to a humanoid and if I recall shows transitional features as well. But the real reason is of course bc they wanted the audience to identify with the aliens and uses detailed motion capture performances to bring them to life which imagine would be harder if they were hexopods
A bit of commentary on Pandora's atmosphere: It isn't very plausible. High levels of methane, hydrogen sulfide, and ammonia are not compatible with high levels of oxygen as the mix is thermodynamically unstable. These gases would be a source of free energy for any organisms that evolved to use them. Even on Earth, there are methanotrophs that use atmospheric oxygen. High levels of xenon while physically possible, are not cosmochemically likely. High CO2 may be possible, but are very lipid soluble, which may complex life difficult (actually, xenon would do this as well).
if Pandora is as close to it's parent planet as Io is to Jupiter, then theirs one issue, io experiences massive tidal forces cause by Jupiter's gravitational pull, and by it's sister moons too, which causes frequent volcano eruptions and quakes on it's surface, making it impossible for complex life to survive there, so I'm afraid to say that a earth like moon orbiting so close to a gas giant, may not be possible in real life.
I don't know about the second movie but the first one certainly put some effort into trying to make it a bit more in the right direction than your generic scifi. Especially with who they had help them with designing the creatures
Perhaps you should have bought and read _"The Science of Avatar"_ by Steven Baxter who is a sci fi author with a background in engineering and mathematics and sticks close to real science in his novels before making this episode. It's supposed to answer all the questions posed in this video.
The question is what radial distance does the moon need to NOT be tidally locked? Mercury is tidally locked to the sun. The images in the movie imply the moon is close to the gas giant so it would be tidally locked. That's the killer... if the moon was further out it might have its own rotation. This also helps the radiation problem. Cameron wanted a great visual but ruined the physics... not that most audiences would know that.
@@floepiejane It's a real engineering slang for something with ideal qualities that doesn't exist. I can see it becoming a nickname for a thing like this, I don't get the backlash.
@@Ali-bu6lo I would just assume that in-universe it does have a scientific name that describes the chemical structure precisely, but as such names are long and cumbersome someone jokingly called it unobtainium (referencing some obscure piece of classical cinema) and the name stuck.
If the gravity was tht high to have floating mountains i dont see how navi even walk.flaoting mountains must be because the rocks are filled with some elements
I was thinking maybe the Floating Mountains might be possible if Pandora orbits just *barely* on the Roche limit. Close enough that a tiny little part of the planet is just a *liiiiiiittle* bit too close to the Gas Giant
Call me a chump but the first time I saw this video in my subs the thumbnail was on an Pandora creature, and I didn't think that'd be interesting. Now you've changed it to being about the planet and that peaked my interest and here I am - thanks for the change!
If you have unobtanium, sure.
The problem with unobtainum is that as soon as you get some, it becomes obtainedit.
it becomes gotsomeonium
@@thearmchairspacemanOG 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
In theory it would also allow you to build a craft capable of drilling to the Earth's molten iron core to deposit several nuclear bombs in case our dynamo ever shut down.
@@AceSpadeThePikachu i got the reference
“Obtainedium”
The notion of a habitable world orbiting a gas giant was explored in depth by Robert Sawyer's 'Quintaglio' books. The fact that the main continent was always pointed away from the gas giant let to a major plot point of what happened when explorers traveled to the far side of the moon for the first time, and discovered this gigantic object in the sky, which became their god.
It's heading for 30 years since I've seen anyone mention those books. Very enjoyable reading.
Sounds interesting, what are the books about?
@@Sabuufa The first 2 books are Galileo and Charles Darwin's stories, told through the medium of dinosaurs, where the society is quite different - individuals are highly territorial and go into a literal killing frenzy if there's too much crowding for example. I enjoyed reading them, when I last read them anyway, the fact I remember them at all after nearly 30 years is a testament to that.
@@peglor I think I will give the first book a try, thanks.
@@peglor A very different one that has a more high-tech look at it is "Catseye"... but there's like 100 novels with that in the name and I can't remember the author. Attempting to look it up failed. All I remember is the cover art is a partially glowing gas giant.
Anyways...this one was a planet Humans colonized that wasn't inhabited when they got there. The name Cat's Eye for the gas giant is due to how it faintly glows on the night side. The cloud patterns partially obstruct the glow and thus it kinda looks like.. that.
Notably in this story the moons orbits with a period similar to a month on Earth, and isn't tidally locked. But the day length is more like an Earth week. Which has the interesting effect of making nights a bit colder than Earth. Especially "true night" which is when you're on the part of the planet that is not lighted by either the sun or Cat's Eye. Oh yeah, it's also a bit colder than Earth. But that's due to being just a bit farther from it's sun.
I lived in Alaska for 23 years, and one of the best auroras I've ever witnessed had green, blue, violet, red, and white in it. And it really danced (meaning it moved and jumped around quickly. Some auroras just slowly drift by.) We even caught this on camera. Absolutely breathtaking.
I lived in Toronto most my life, I moved 5 hrs east of Thunder bay 3 years ago. Seen about 5 Auroras so far but with no color, all were white and could be mistaken for clouds if the weren't so bright
Could you upload it to TH-cam so we can see it?
S h a r e
Sir or Madam, you are morally obligated to share this beautful event with the rest of humanity. Upload at once and share the link here. Thank you!
I should mention that I have no video of this event. I was so in awe that I didn't think of it until later.
Cameron has already revealed the main antagonist of the next film will be a fire tribe of na'vi similar to how there were water tribes in the latest film. If Pandora is tidally locked I'm fascinated by a possibility that there could be a "twilight" tribe that lives in this eternal darkness. A cinematic challenge no doubt
Fire tribe? You aren't referring to other "Avatar"franchise, are you
Twilight*
@@rosyidharyadi7871 nope, Cameron has said that there will be a fire nation called the "ash people," and they'll be much less friendly than the water na'vi, probably playing a villain role in some capacity
I hate to crush your hopes, but I think if it was tidally locked, it would be permanently facing the planet, not the star, so there would still be day and night time. But, depending on the axial tilt of both the moon and the planet, there could be some sort of twilight on the polar regions of the moon? Sort of like an eternal sunset?
There's still a day and night on the moon, it's just that one side always sees the gas giant and the other side never does.
If astronomers confirm that there is a gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri, I hope they name it Polyphemus.
why would they name it after a cyclops shepherd?
@Birbology ! Good point. If they find evidence that it once had a "Great Spot" - type cyclone (and only one such storm), but no longer does, then it might be a fun reference to the Odyssey (since Odysseus gouged out his only eye in self-defense). Of course by the time we get information *that* precise on the planet, we likely would've named it long ago.
😂😂😂😂❤
Don't bet. They didn't respect Bellerophon nor Osiris. The names given for the discoverers to the first extrasolar planets.
There should be international law, that if a science fiction work predict some phenomenon, and it is later discovered to be real, then it has to be named after that scifi.
If Pandora had a very short orbital period around Polyphemus, then it would be deep in the radiation belt. Better if it's more like Callisto's distance from Jupiter. But what sci-fi maker can resist close-ups of a gas giant? Cameron deserves a medal for restraint in not giving Polyphemus unrealistic rings.
I think of the floating mountains like the giant wave in Interstellar - a scientifically implausible liberty taken because it's awesome in a movie that otherwise tries to ground itself in the possible. Ditto the giant tree.
Came here to say just this and saw your comment. Anything that close to a gas giant, the amount of radiation bombarding that surface, I highly doubt anything could survive let alone flourish.
@@erdrickcapet3945 Yes, to live around a gas giant, you'd probably need far enough away from it for it not to look spectacular in the night sky. A shame, perhaps.
Gas giants also have dangerously powerful magnetic fields.
According to the wiki Pandora sits just outside the main radiation belts of the Gas Giant.
During it’s transit of Polyphemus’s night side however, the moon passes through the planet’s magnetotail and gets an absolute walloping of radiation, leading to intense Aurora in the sky.
Pandoran life is well adapted to resist such ionising radiation, however the humans need treatment for radiation sickness, have to take Iodine and seek radiation protection areas during solar storms.
Pandora also has a strong Magnetic Field, given the existence of the “Flux Vortex” being an interaction between the planet and moon’s fields.
The Unobtanium in the Moon’s core as it travels through Polyphemus’s field likely supercharges Pandora’s field.
The thick atmosphere also provides some degree of shielding as well.
I like to think that Unobtainium is very sensitive to magnetic fields, just like how neodymium magnets have a much stronger magnetism than ceramic magnets
@Apeironn87 it is. Unobtainium in the movie is a room temperature super conductor. So yea it would be very sensitive to magnetic fields.
Now that I've watched the whole video, I'm glad you touched on the aurora. That would be an indicator that Pandora has a magnetic field. Given that it is rich in superconducting minerals, this would only serve to enhance the magnetosphere of the planet. It makes sense that it would have one powerful enough to protect from the radiation belt.
The Mother of all Mag fields! That close to a gas giant, it would fry.
Now I'm wondering, wouldn't the magnetic field of the gas giant induce currents in Pandora? Especially if it has a large superconducting core? This should be more than enough to generate an absolutely monstrous magnetic field for Pandora, though the prospect of superconducting materials being able to remain superconductive in such conditions seems impossible.
It might also be both, with the strong magnetic field bringing the radiation down to levels survivable for the native life which evolved under it. (Which sadly means that the clock is ticking for Jake's son on the second movie.)
Well, a magnetic Firld would help the Habitability along. Because this Field shields a Planet from solar Winds. Which is good, if You are interested of having an Atmosphere. You know - Breathing and Stuff...
There isn't enough surface area on the top of the floating mountains to collect enough rain to feed the waterfalls.
Best explanation i have is condensation. Water evaporated from the planet surface condense in the lower pressure and clings to the surface of the floating mountains, creating runoff
We only witnessed the floating mountains for moments. There is nothing saying that that was not a cumulative watershed effect that was only happening during that time. They might accumulate water for months and then cataclysmicly shed it over days.
@@trequor most superconductors need to be chilled to work properly - if unobtanium is naturaly chilling itself then that might be the case- aka not only it would make the mountains fly but it would make them kinda chilly thus making condensation on them easier - but then that would probaly impact the vegetation in negative way.
@@krzosu well according to the lore that isn't a problem for unobtainium - it remains superconducting right up to its melting point of over 1500 degrees, and for that reason it's used to control the antimatter reactions in the engines of the ISVs. The mineral interacts with the Pandoran flux vortices in such a way during its volcanic formation that it essentially crystallizes magnetic potentials at the quantum level within its structure.
Um the fouting mountains are from magnetic feilds. Why wouldnt the water flow along the gravity rings? End up in the same place the land did. Floating in this specific way.
I'm a sucker for speculative biology so Pandora's ecosystem with the lands and creatures is what hooked me in the first place.
Played the game "Alpha Centauri"?
I could watch hours of just fictional documentaries set on pandora. The human conflict is something i oersonally would cut in favor of telling Navi Stories.
Yeah I second this, like I don't care for a story on human greed and war and conflict or anything, just show me the wonders and marvels of all the amazing animals and plants and different Na'vi groups on Pandora, please! Like we need a tv series of documentaries on just the Na'vi and the fauna and flora!
@@Manj_J cringe
really? you dont realize its just the same old stories with blue aliens?
I've never seen an Avatar movie. My religion forbids watching movies with blue, sentient creatures. J/K. Seriously though, many people have gotten 'spoiled' from seeing the beauty of a fictional world, and can't appreciate the real beauty of our amazing world. So, I'm not sorry that I didn't watch them. I probably will eventually.
I haven't seen the new movie, but I loved the old movie as a kid. There's something about dystopian but still futuristic human culture that grips me, even if it's mostly American culture.
It gets me moreso when there's interaction between two communities like that, first contact stories (and first contact by us, done wrong) fascinate me to no end because I loved coming up with ideas on how it could've been handled better and more peaceably.
And I didn't even get to mentioning cool mechs or crazy VTOL craft juxtaposed with natives, they're so deeply detailed and I think it's because that's how the Navi would see them too. You'd have to be searching for weak points or things you can exploit so you kind of have to be looking for detail.
In China, Avatar 2 was surpassed by a local Chinese sci-fi epic called The Wandering Earth 2. I find it quite curious that both films deal with Alpha Centauri as the main target for human survival, and reflect on the limits of today's technology.
Is Alpha centauri really is humanity last survival?
@CosmoTube well yea I guess humans could go to other planets and reach destination to alpha centauri
@@CosmoTube-ox1ep Actually no! Solar sails can accelerate a spacecraft to a fair fraction of the speed of light!
Chinese are just good at copying Americans ideas and inventions.
@@CosmoTube-ox1ep
That sounds epic
I love Avatar but had no idea it was based in the Alpha star system. Thats awesome
When I heard that I was surprised too. I had no idea it literally takes place in our back yard. Our closes start system.
@@-TheMaskedMan- it’s literally a film
@@justsean6199 It is??? I was really hoping to visit the Navi sometime 2040😔🙄
@@justsean6199 And?
i thought it was just a moon of jupiter
I really love the point you brought up about tribes on one side not even knowing they orbit a gas giant.
Cartoons need there planets ship fleets? Try designing one in children cartons! The company pland was cooked about maintaining Pandora? Keep useing if on let's see who needs it more!
Ag AQ it's not solid Lq.pure LQ can't frezzs! So freezer is limited on a diff side for cartoons re do! Thanks for rockets! 👽🚀⚖️🐝🕸️Spyder man don't work with bees! Retard! Extra is better? So others can use his black yellow mustard? So plants he don't do also! Just work with1/4 of Pandora and well see what the landing is! Cage is for size type. Rockets how stacks! If usa knows how to next sectional reasons to fine out .y freezers shape stuff was portol intrees also! When magic runs low are fades off does to not add to that planet! Spacex could have new about Pandora. The CD for the navigation planet?
@@sysomphonemanuthong3953 I think your phone managed to do a pocket response to à TH-cam comment, that was basically unintelligible nonsense.
@@sjsomething4936 It happens to me sometimes too, you type an answer in a hurry to notice later that you just write an unintelligible collection of nonsense. XD
@@sysomphonemanuthong3953 ?
I add to the floating mountains as a possibility that they AREN'T non-living chunks of rock in the air, but a living organism that has other tiny organisms controlling it entirely similar to coral, they create billions of air sacs that help keep the organism afloat, and the surface of the organism looks like rock because of it's peculiar armor that it uses for defense and camoflauge. I speculate these organisms are preyed on by flying creatures that favor the tiny organisms that create the air sacs, and to protect themselves, they'll sometimes lower themselves down to the surface so that they can blend in with the mountainous regions they hail from.
Reminds me of the floating islands from Subnautica with this explanation
This is a nice answer, but it only works wonder under water because of the gas vs water huge difference in density. I take it, you mean that those huge mountain is actually and empty balloon that floats like zeppelin, right?
Outside of the huge chunk of rock, we also see much smaller rocks along the root/vine that extend from the bigger rock. We can clearly see that these are pure rock with no floating power of their own. So those giant rocks also need to pull up the smaller rocks all around, including the vegetation on top of them all.
Oh, vegetation.
It would also be pretty hard for vegetation to grow on the mountain if most of its actual mass is actually hollow.
That aside, i'm sorry that i also cant explain the floating mountain myself.
Any kind of magnetic/electric/physical force that i can think of that can maintain it passively should be harmful to the living organism around it.
You clearly put a lot more thought into this than the writers did, but even then they would be bouncing around all over the place whenever anyone touches them and would certainly sink under the weight of all the vegetation and the dirt needed to support said vegetation
Not to mention if it was a form of life it would be completely isolated from any food/nutrients, birds can’t fly forever for the same reason
Next tackle How Realistic Is the World of Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin
These avatar movies are different than just normal movies imo, they are more an experience and an escape from everything and i absolutely love them, especially at the cinema. Can't wait for the future avatar movies.
yeah they’re visual experiences because the world is just pretty but poorly built and the story is bland, very very bland
Explains why we will never get enough of these idiotic bland empty spectacles.
@@pabloalonso9162 "poorly built" - I assume you didn't watch the video?
It's a fairly simplistic SF / Drama. But I recommend anyone to go see it in 3D in the cinema, it is a highly immersive experience unmatched by any movie, except perhaps "Sanctum" by the same director. Some would call the experience transformative, and personally I experienced some of what people described as "crashing hard from a high" when exiting the cinema after the movie ended.
@@eldrago19 They suck ass, sorry
I would love a video about The Expanse. Imho it is a very possible future - at least the technology and the story of colonizing on mars and the belt.
Yes, The Expanse!
Damn that was a good show, I might rewatch that again thanks
sadly it's on indefinite hiatus since s6 :(
@@alveolate I guess bright side is you got a chance to watch other shows 🤷♂️
The Expanse isn't "very possible", in its general contours it's the future. There will be space mining for the simple reason that (eventually) it will cost less to mine iridium and other high-value elements in the asteroid belt than on Earth. Mining creates settlements, as we've seen over millennia of human history. Settlements bring society, which spawns other industries. Now you've got a space economy. Putting aside the drama and liberties taken with scientific details, The Expanse nailed our future.
Very good vid. I have to point out though that oxygen is not why dinosaurs got as big as they did. A combination of hollow bones, efficient breathing and egg laying. During some periods oxygen was actually lower, yet dinosaurs still remained large. Although this is just a nitpick. Again great video
As a Communications Engineering graduate, I found this video extremely interesting. The technology itself was astounding and the explanations were outstanding. Such videos would have been very helpful in my student life.
I think unobtainable is the most interesting thing about this franchise. It’s a superconductor that has a magnetic field which is not what we observe in reality. Such a sci-fi metal would allow us to make extremely powerful and controlled magnetic fields. So yes the mountains do act as a sort of magnet probably being drawn to Polyphemus’ magnetic field until it gets to an altitude where gravity takes over so you get various mountains floating at various altitudes.
Based on the changing position of Polyhemus in the sky during both movies, Pandora is not tidaly locked. Sometimes we see it high in the sky, sometimes just touching the horizon, and a few times intersecting it.
But are those in shots taken from (approximately) the same location on the surface?
@JulesStoop they were likely at least in the same area. Like maybe an area of a few hundred km tops. Since the humans could reach all the na'vi areas with ground vehicles in seemingly relatively short time. And most na'vi travel was done on ground level as well.
But isnt centauri an red dwarf ? This makes it less stable with makes life less plausible the long term
@@damianmandras8283 Correction, life as we know it. There could be intelligent life out there that's a lot more adapted to high radiation and the like. Heck there could be intelligent life out there that we might not even immediately recognize as life. We only have 1 example of life after all, our own planet. A laughably small sample size to make generalizations about what is and isn't possible for life.
And red dwarfs can be active for literally trillions of years (by comparison, our sun will die after around 10 billions years total) That's a lot of time for even the smallest of chances to become a reality.
@@damianmandras8283 Proxima Centauri is, but Centauri A and B are both main sequence yellow dwarfs and Pandora orbits a gas giant which orbits Centauri A according to the movie.
One interesting issue regarding a tidally locked moon (which would be almost all moons in most star systems) would be that there would be a higher prevalence of the night and twilight compared to light day. This is not necessarily a bad thing, on the contrary: The gas giant would shelter and act as a shield, diminishing the amount of harmful radiation that could reach from the star. Also, as the star development during millions of years increases the amount of radiation and heat, the moon would be able to adapt much easily than a planet to such changing conditions, thus protecting life.
The radiation from the planet is the biggest problem for life. If unobtanium is a superconductor, though, its occurrence on Pandora could mean a far bigger magnetosphere than a moon would generally have.
@@nagillim7915 Bioluminescence can protect against radiation and flares from an M class star. There's a lot published about it.
Wouldn't the higher prevalence of night time compared to day (at least on the side facing the gas giant) create a runaway cooling effect? If there's more night than day, then wouldn't it cool down more than the day can heat it up, essentially covering the facing-side of the moon in ice?
I was thinking of this while watching and trying to imagine a reason why this *wouldn't* happen, but couldn't think of one.
@@foosic1742 - depending on the size of the gas giant it might be giving off large amounts of infrared generated by its own gravitational contraction. That could heat the side of the moon facing the planet. And that's assuming the moon is tidally locked, which will largely depend on its distance from the gas giant and their relative masses.
If the moon is tidally locked then its day/night cycle will be determined by its orbit around the planet and not its own rotation around its axis. The length of that day/night cycle as well as the diameter of the moon and the thickness of the atmosphere will largely determine the climate. If Pandora is less than half the size of Earth then you'd need to half the length of the day/night cycle to about 12 hours to keep an atmospheric circulation pattern like Earth's: the coriolis effect has to be high enough to form Hadley cells in the tropics and a polar front or else atmospheric circulation collapses down to a single cell per hemisphere, meaning equatorial jungles, icy polar deserts and nothing but cool semi-arid scrub and savannah between the two. There'd be no jetstream, no temperate rain bands, no deciduous or taiga forests, no bread baskets of civilisation.
@wildfirex666 Who's in the what now? Is that a sarcastic joke? If not, what the hell are you on about?
I LOVE your videos!!! Not just narration, you provide opinions, and delve deep. Providing extra content like this just adds to the interest.
THANK YOU!
Unfortunately the company adverised at the end of your video is a scam. You should vet your advetisers more thoroughly
I think the mountains wouldn’t be possible under two teslas, as stated in the movie. Superconductor or not, that would require about 100000 Tesla to lift those mountains which is like magnetic field of neutron star.
In that magnetic field, your blood will fly one way, while water will fly another.
I would like to see the science of a plant based neural link to animals and restoring consciousness via its connections too. Supposedly there was an intense battle scene he cut from the movie because of current world events and violence but I bet it was stellar, hope its in the extended cut.
It makes no sense biologically, but there's always the possibility the whole planet was engineered by a lost civilisation.
Perhaps they will return in great annoyance to find that their system administrators have forgotten their duty and some upstart savages are mining the computational substrate for shiny rock.
kind of like how mushrooms and trees NOW communicate information, but add animals
Wanna know the biggest problem with the "we took all resources from earth, now we going to get more from other planets" plot?
It's that if you have the technology from avatar, then you can get an almost unending amount of resources in our solar system. The asteroid belt between mars and Jupiter alone is supposed to contain more water in ice form then a thousand earths, and the amount of rare metals in there is absurd. So they made up some "unobtainion" sci-fi stuff because making an actual good plot is hard. Hell, look at dune. They actually pulled an "unobtainion" before the term was even invented, but the book is so well written that it makes complete sense.
They don't go to Pandora due to a lack of resources, they go there to mine Unobtanium which fuels the industry that in turn rapidly depletes Earth's resources. The idea is that humanity is unfit to ethically utilize Unobtanium due to industrial/corporate greed. Them turning to Pandora in the second film is a colonization effort as consequence of those actions.
@@MirandaAndUh Unless that's stated in the second movie, I never heard that before. I do know they say earth will die in the second movie without unobtanium for some reason, that reason being "we did not though about that AGAIN", just like they didn't think about how after the first movie earth would just send a real full on army and just orbital bombard every single part of Pandora with any semblance of life. Oh right, it's because that's not something that happens on dance with wolves.
That's not what they say at all, by the way. It seems paying attention is beyond your abilities, so I'll just clarify that they're not saying Earth will die without Unobtanium (which is also not the case in the first movie) but that it is dying because it has been depleted of its natural resources... a result of Unobtanium usage. Why is it always these people who insist Avatar is just Dances With Wolves like a bunch of preprogramed goons that don't understand the entire point of the movie?
@@MirandaAndUh So, earth is dying because of lack of resources related with the manufacturing of unobtainable. And how exactly that is different from LACK FO RESOURCES IN GENERAL?
Also, yes, it is just dance with wolves BUT WORST.
And thanks for proving my point by attacking me instead of offering an actual response. You want to gush about the blue furries and the "humans be evil... Because!" narrative vomited by a hack who claims that testosterone is toxic, then expect that some of us who actually read a book or two and developed some standards to not be so easily swayed by the pretty colours.
@@caiocbcn Earth is dying because the biosphere is collapsing. It was revealed in the game, so lack of resources have nothing to do with it. Humans are not evil in Avatar universe, only RDA is. What they are doing to Pandora, they did to Earth before. Later in the movies, Earth will be of course saved and humans and Na'vi will live in peace. And Cameron never said that testosterone is toxic, that was a hoax based on misinterpretation of his words.
We can feel that James Cameron takes good care to polish every little detail in his movies ! that's what makes them so great !
There is only one thing that bother me with Avatar: All the fauna seems to have evolved to a 6 limbs creatures! the na'vi are the only exception to that! does that mean some catastrophy happened? or maybe even the na'vi are alien to this world? We can go very far and think that maybe they are the result of the human federation experiment to create a humanoid creature on this planet! hence the avatar program !
I think it´s more likely the na´vi do just occupie a different ecological niche, which favors four limps.
@@ancientcolors But every other mammal-like creature, including the small pseudo-primate from the first movie has six limbs.
There actually is an explanation for why the Na'vi have 4 limbs in the first movie, though it is hard to explain without images.
Basically the Na'vi are not the only 4 limbed creatures on pandora, in the first movie we see creatures called Prolemurus who are the closest living relative of the Na'vi, like the Na'vi they have lost 2 of their 4 eyes, have lost one of their neural queues and have hair on their heads, most importantly they have 2 and a half limbs, they used to have 6 limbs but over time their 2 sets of forelimbs have fused up to the elbow
Not only that but the prolemurus have 2 fingers on each of their 4 hands and the Na'vi have 4 fingers on each of their 2 hands which leads us to presume that in the evolutionary history of the Na'vi they ones had 4 forelimbs each ending in 2 fingered hands which then fused over time
The prolemurus are a living missing link between the Na'vi and the other animals of pandora
This whole thing will be a lot easier to understand if you look up what prolemurus looks like, their arms are pretty interesting
This fusing of limbs is the reason why Na'vi also can't punch, their arms just aren't developed for it, their hand and wrist bones arent built to take the impact
@@kieramcadams4103 the prolemurus don't actually have 6 limbs or 4, they are in a stage of transition from 6 limbs to 4 limbs, the same way that the Na'vi lost their extra limbs due to the 4 forelimbs fusing together
There are lemur-like creatures on Pandora that have 4 partially merged arms, the upper part of the arms is merged into one while the part below the elbow is split into 2 pairs of arms. Maybe they are an inbetween step of the evolution of the Na'vi where their 4 arms fully merged into 2 arms. Or maybe they just lost a pair of limbs over time like how whales lost their hind limbs.
Or maybe the Na'vi just have different lines of ancestors than the other creatures there.
Never thought I'd see this video happen. I admire all your material... and I also really like Avatar, so this is a nice bonus for me.
What would the planet's gravity do to the moon? Thinking about about the inner moons of Jupiter are basically ripped apart by the intense gravity of Jupiter
It would have more volcanic activity, but that wouldn't make it uninhabitable. Earth has quite a lot of volcanic activity as well compared to other planets in our solar system after all.
I'm just a major fan of anything bioluminescence, which made me fall in love with the world of Pandora very quickly . I just wonder how likely it is for planets dominated with bioluminescent life to exist out there.
I mean certain parts of our ocean fit that description. I suppose the question is how likely it is that the surface and atmoshere of a planet would be dominated by bioluminescent life.
@@jeffbenton6183 Yes. This is what I mean. Just imagine walking through a bioluminescent version of Central Park in Manhattan. Or perhaps how we can possibly use bioluminescent plants and life to our advantage such as a replacement for streetlights.
@@jacksonbarkerthebluehairedfox I think in india we have forest of bioluminescent actually there are some mushrooms, Herb's and plants which glow in dark in monsoon ( rainy season) it glows more you can visit it
The question is what bioluminescence does for life on Pandora?
Like flowers are bright to attract pollinators while fruit is bright to get animals to eat it and defecate the seeds out elsewhere. Seeing the abundance of bioluminescence in plant life on Pandora might be wanting to imply a similar function... BUT why is this actually better then just simple bright colors seen in daylight? Answer: it very probably is not because maintaining that pretty glow (well beyond anything you see here on earth) all night ends up needing too many resources for any extra attraction factor. They'd be out competed.
You could still force a confirmation bias with more explanation, like maybe Pandoran animals can't detect regular colors well enough, but we know this isn't true of the Na'vi so why not others?
@@blacksage2375 The answer is simple: there is so much bioluminescence and only tammed eclipse "night" because it's a movie searching to be visually appealing. An horror film like Pitch Black did the absolute opposite choice to serve the scenario.
There is no point to search scientific explanations inside that Pocahontas rip-off blockbuster series. It's really not that deep in every level.
I've wondered about the factor of the Roche limit. A body of given size/density, if located within the Roche limit of the parent body it orbits, will be torn apart by tidal stress. This is the cause of Saturn's ring system. Visually it seems possible that Pandora might be too close to remain intact.
Roche limit gets in the way with many cool science fiction worlds unfortunately. Pandora really does look super close
This is an interesting question. It's the reason IO is so geologically active, as it gets pulled on by Jupiter (as well as the other moons).
Same reason why moons of saturn and jupiter have subsurface oceans
What about tides on Pandora??? Since, according to your video, Pandora is not tidally locked with its home planet, and since the home planet is MUCH larger (and presumably more massive) than Pandora itself, then the tidal effects of the home planet on Pandora's oceans would be ENORMOUS. On Earth, with a relatively small single moon, we experience tides that can often range from 10-20 feet, depending on the local geography. On Pandora, the tides would be immensely bigger. This would have major consequences for any areas near a Pandoran ocean.
Pandora is tidally locked, so there are no tides.
Floating mountains are probably unlikely as depicted in the film. Perhaps if there are some magnetic forces involved, maybe combined with gravitational effects of the gas giant the moon orbits (so floating mountains would only be on the side facing Polyphemus?), and toss in a thick enough atmosphere and make the mountains out of material that's relatively low mass to boost their buoyancy. Like Alex mentions in this video, I agree that the waterfalls just wouldn't happen - aside from where all that water is coming from, would whatever forces that allow the floating land allow for the water to fall instead of just float away?
If the magnetic forces were enough to lift rocks, unobtainium or not, they’d practically rip the iron right out of living creatures’ bloodstreams.
Dew
@@mrviking2mcall212😮
They went to all that effort for the world building and then made a plot that was pretty awful and badguys who were more two dimensional than cardboard cutouts...
And tbf the bad guys were in all honesty cooler than anything the Na'vi had
JC Avatar might have its flaws but they are still good films
P.S. "Unobtanium" is a silly name for Pandora's Anti-gravity mineral. A better, more appropriate, name would have been "Upsidaisyum".(with apologies to Rocky and Bullwinkle).
While I have never been infatuated with the Avatar movies I have really enjoyed your realistic exploration of them.
Good video, thank you. I wasn't hooked by the Avatar storyline but the film is beautiful. A similar video on the planets shown in Interstellar or Dune (Arrakis) would be good.
You can count on Astrum to change the thumbnail and title 5 times within a day for new videos 😂😂😂😂
@@SeriouslyWeirdDream yea it’s unprofessional and annoying though .
It's not really oxygen that contributes to large flora and fauna. Plants feed on carbon dioxide. High atmospheric carbon dioxide is what allows for massive plant growth, and in turn massive animals which feed on those plants.
Might be true, but there are limiting factors. Plants feed on CO2, but they still need to breathe oxygen. Likewise herbivores need oxygen to get the energy they need to move around, graze, and perhaps also to digest their food.
I wish aliens in movies would not look like us, with typical head, hand and legs. I wish the producers have little bit more imagination.
To be fair, convergent evolution means the Na'vi could plausibly look human.
Their imagination was full of nothing but making a beautiful world only to add humans in there and ruin everything by war.
And they had a lot of whale hunting on their minds. But they never imagined a good plot...
Seeing this video talks about many speculative biology topics, Id recommend the channel Curious Archive. They have a series dedicated to these kind of works. Not just alien biology but fantasy biology and also how life on Earth would be like millions of years in the future. Etc.
10:15 You're thinking of the insects of the Carboniferous, Dinosaurs did not grow this large because of higher oxygen concentration. Insects heavily benefit from this and are size limited by oxygen levels because their way of taking in oxygen involves the oxygen just passively diffusing into their skin. The larger any object gets, the interior volume grows at a faster rate than its surface, meaning that a larger insect has to be able to provide a larger body with relatively less skin to breathe with, limiting their size depending on the oxygen levels. But that’s not how lungs work, and Dinosaurs were not breathing these insanely high levels of oxygen as in the Carboniferous anyway
In fact, the oxygen levels of the Mesozoic, the era of the Dinosaurs, was estimated (relative to modern levels) at 80% in the Triassic, 120% in the Jurassic, and 150% in the Cretaceous Period.
This wouldn’t explain the Sauropods, the largest land animals of all time, existing since the Triassic
was looking for this comment
Not going to lie... when I clicked I was thinking Pandora from Borderlands...
Small correction: it is not widely accepted that during the Mesozoic era there were more oxygen than now. As far as I know, most experts do not think it's true, and there is no evidence of it. Other than that, it's a really nice video. I learned a lot, thank you!
I heard before from a documentary that there was considerably more oxygen back then. That doesn't mean it's true of course, but there must've been some reason why some scientists (or at least science enthusiasts) in the past thought that there was more oxygen back then. Would you happen to know where this idea came from?
@@jeffbenton6183 Unfortunatly, I do not know what is the exact source of this idea. However, it looks to me like it is really old (I might have seen something like it in old russian textbooks, but I am not shure about that). After some searching, It appers that it is not so much the lack of evidence, as absence of consensus. As a modeling study from 2016 states: "The results of such studies differ greatly, to the extent that today’s atmospheric mixing ratio of 21% might be either the highest or lowest level during the past 200 m.y. " (Benjamin J.W. Mills et al, 2016). It seems that different studies look at different aspects (like air trapped in ancient amber, gasses trapped in rocks and paleobotanical evidence), and all of their results do not really agree with each other. I am not an expert in this field, far from it, but if I had to bet, I would say that Mesozoic was a thery long era and surely O2 levels flactuated during it, but I doubt that they ever reached anything close to the Carboneferous, and most likely were much closer to the modern levels.
@@absentfish1706 Maybe confusion with the Carboniferous O2 levels is a reason for the idea's spread.
I only remember reading about them being higher during the Cretaceous period rather than the entirety of the Mesozoic era. But I have never been exposed to a consensus the other directly, interesting.
@@absentfish1706 Air, or gasses in general, can easily diffuse through thin solid matter.
Amber is generally not large and thick enough to not allow diffusion of air particles and molecules.
Gasses in rocks however might be the best we have as evidence of past atmosphere mixtures.
Despite this even gasses trapped in rocks don't show much signs of high O2 levels in the past.
Perhaps somewhere far away in another Galaxy or within our Galaxy there may be world like Pandora..... we will never meet them neither they will , they are busy in their own life and we too 💔💔💔
I mean yea obviously There's gonna be life in another planet cuz millions of galaxies
After watching the two Avatar movies, do you really want humanity to get out of this solar system alive? I think it's best if humanity dies on this planet, and doesn't spread anywhere else.
@@Tasorius Starting with you.
I would love to see more videos like this talking about fictional space settings.
Same. I've often wondered just how feasible some of the science in movies is e.g. Dune's ornithopters.
I still don't understand how humans can jibe the time and date during interstellar travel with the time and date used on Earth
Yooo! Didn’t think a video like this would come out!
Dan Simmons’ ‘Hyperion’ written in the 80s has floating islands that are explained to be fully alive with motility and sentience .. perhaps the inspiration?
@10:21 , more oxygen in the atmosphere didn't allow dinosaurs to grow bigger. Blue whales are larger than dinosaurs so if that was the limiting factor, they couldn't have gotten that big.
This is compounded by two facts:
1. Dinosaurs likely had the highly efficient unidirectional respiratory system characteristic of birds (which allows them to exert themselves at altitudes at which we'd asphyxiate at).
2. Blue whales are holding their breath the majority of the time and usually use ~85% of the oxygen that they inhale.
So relatively low concentrations of oxygen in the atmosphere would have an even larger impact on a whale than it would a sauropod dinosaur.
I've never had an interest in these movies. So I am pleasantly shocked at how much they thought about the world building as far as the environment goes. I probably wouldn't notice it consciously while watching but subconsciously it would make the film reality vibe alive.
The dumbest part is unobtanium. Not the properties, but the name... Unobtanium? reallt Cameron was MacGuffin-ite already trademarked?
If you either watch the Birdman’s Everything Wrong With CinemaSins Avatar video or Google the word unobtanium, you would know it’s not as stupid as you think. By definition, it’s either a fictional metal that does not exist, or is a real material that’s hard to come by because of extreme rarity or really high cost.
@@whitewolf3051 It is calling a trope by its trope name. Like calling a MacGuffin "The MacGuffin" in dialogue. Lazy and dumb.
@@Lightman0359 Well, what else were they suppose to call an unknown rare - fictional - costly metal? Are they to make up a name? So what if they use an existing word that can be applied both in fiction and real life?
@@Lightman0359You might have a point except the naming conventions for newly discovered elements goes fairly in line with the name. We don’t get an official name until one of the scientific governing bodies meet to give it an official name and it gets recognition and acceptance.
For example until a name was decided Nobelium was called Unnilbium. Dubnium was Unnilpentium.
So Unobtanium while a bit on the nose does go along with that convention.
In their defense, transformer had transformeum.
The thing with moons is that there is no actual day and night. There is the rotation of the moon, creating day and night. And the rotation around the planet, creating a half month of day/night cycles and a half month worth of night (being in the schadow of the planet). So that life would have to cope with 25 % daytime and 75 % nighttime... Its possible I guess but seems odd.
About the “Unobtanium”,
I think it can actually be metallic hydrogen, which is known to be a room temperature superconductor. That way it can stay suspended in the magnetic flux, thus creating the hallelujah maintains and everything else.
According to some of the theories, immense pressure inside the big gas giants can create metallic hydrogen and this metallic hydrogen can keep its metallic state even after there is no pressure.
My theory is that, in the past, two gas giants may have been collided and the metallic hydrogen got thrown out. After some time, just like our moon, pandora could be created from the debris cloud.
Theres an old MMO that never had much popularity called Shores of Hazeron. Habitable moons orbiting gas giants were always my favourite places to colonize. Theyre so pretty!
Mine too. :) I have ideas for a planet pack for KSP & JNO, maybe one of these days I'll get around to making it.
The second movie didn’t make sense to me. Humans have apparently made earth unlivable so they’re moving to a planetoid that’s under extreme radiation, has an atmosphere with toxic gasses, and that has 16-18% CO2??? Like if they think they can terraform that how can they not terraform earth that is already pretty good or just build space cities where they can create the exact requirements for human life? They obviously have the advanced technology. Or we know it’s possible they can create alien biology through genetic manipulation, why not just engineer human bodies to better survive earth?
First movie made more sense, they’re mining rare resources, however other planetoids in the star system should have the same resources right? We aren’t they mining them but the one that has life??? The only other known place in the universe that has life?
It will make more sense later. Earth is becoming uninhabitable because biosphere is dying. You can fix that with terraforming. Pandora is the best option because you still have water and food there.
10:11 Because of the low gravity, would it not be that the trees are thinner and weaker? After all, there would not be much resistance for them to grow.
8:42 That would also mean that Na'vi on the Polyphemus-facing side of Pandora could use it as a point of reference for travelling, just as humans used stars, thus Na'vi on this side being much more connected (commercially, culturally...) than on the other side, or they could just have a much poorer knowledge of astronomy
How about gravitational effect of the nearby planet on especially Pandora's oceans and seas? In the movie, it doesn't seems notable, but in reality you can only think of how much a small moon like earth's has on our oceans and seas activities.
I've been becoming increasingly interested in realistic near future science fiction that doesn't break the laws of physics.
If our civilization survives for a thousand years, the laws of physics will be very different, because it's only a model of reality made by humans. Not the full picture of reality.
My major gripe with Avatar (which is one of my favourite movies!) is the indigenous lifeforms. On Earth, all of what could be described as the "higher" lifeforms have the same body pattern (four limbs being the most obvious trait). On Pandora, that is also almost true - all of them have a six-limb body pattern - except the Na'vi. Where exactly are their evolutionary ancestors/cousins? For me, it's the only thing that spoils an otherwise willing suspension of disbelief! Great analysis Alex, thanks for excellent content as usual.
Awesome content with great topics
Astrum... Tank you, I am a huge avatar fan. Its nice to see some content that doesn't bash the universe.
A living planet like earth.. that would be great.. unfortunately everything is so far away you can't get to it..
I'm offended by you saying I've been living under a rock sir, because I happen to be living on top of a rock.
I demand an apology sir! 🌍
I am a rock and as such I hold no grudge. Technically I live under, on top and within a rock. Space is very relative.
If humans are advanced enough to modify genes and interstellar travel, can't they just farm raw materials from asteroids or space dust and synthesize the substance they want on Pandora?
Yep
That's probably why the sequel introduced a second, more impossible MacGuffin for the humans to chase after.
This is the problem with so very many sci-fi adventures: The driving conflict just makes no sense.
Humans just need to expand until some space elves get too rowdy and cause the galaxy to nearly collapse. That's when humanity really gets started.
What about the tides created by the gas giant’s gravity so close to Pandora? It would be full planet tides, I imagine.
I’m not sure, but we may have ruled out Polyphemus sized planets in that system?
You should discuss the concept of the planet being almost a supercomputer, considering how the root systems and all the life connect and act as almost a brain… really cool to think about
meanwhile, dropping off a single, or at least two more BOR7 unit(s) on that said-rock, and then sit back and let those said-Old One era/pre-Sirius era units do their....work.
You mean exactly like the symbiosis between mushrooms and trees in the real world? Mycelial networks connect trees, allow them to communicate with each other, and help to bring water to the trees.
Could a gas giant form within the habitable zone of a star? Or would the habitable zone for the moon be based on the moons distance from the gas giant (i.e. the gas giant itself is providing the habitable zone for the moon)? And if so (the gravity of the gas giant provides the energy via tectonics, etc) would that moon have enough light for plant photosynthesis?
The very idea of searching for, mining, and transporting resources to Earth from another star system is so absurd that I've never watched any of those movies. I've always wondered why people come up with such nonsense when there are enough resources in the solar system to sustain humanity for thousands of years of development...
12:42 Not plausible either, if those mountains were filled with unobtanium, then there’s no reason they try to take down the large tree. They could’ve just mine the floating mountains
The logistics may be tricky. It’s a floating mountain, so the big mining equipment couldn’t be used, and they don’t know how much is necessary to float, so they’re probably worried about the terrain collapsing under them.
@@aidanhammans9337 Tow it out into space? Either way, one has to ask why the earth under the tree hasn't detached itself and floated off. Roots holding it down? Also, why the big mountains. Shouldn't unobtanium gravel levitate? In which case, the mountain might not be a solid mass, but bits held together by magnetic forces.
interesting prospect... if the earth was tidaly locked like pandora orbiting a gas giant and the center face would be the middle east jerusalem mekka lengh degree then basically the natives of the americas would never know they orbit a gas giant and probably the japanese, nz and a couple more
The *big* problem I have with the Avatar franchise is that we don't need Unobtainium to make the global vactrain system the Resources Development Corporation runs, it's more of a construction issue.
Not sure what is the hypothetical methane concentration in Pandora's atmosphere, but between 5 and 15% Methane is explosive under our oxygen concentration, so, don't fire your rifles against the native population. Methane is not actually toxic but can asphixiate you if it replaces enough of the Oxygen. Hydrogen sulfide is also explosive in a wider range (4 - 45 %) and also very toxic at much lower concentrations.
I would love to see you Alex to make review on movie interstellar and explain gravitational waves and gorgantua
I was a bit dismayed the space travel bit at the end got cut off.
Are you planning to do a video about the interstellar spaceflight technology in the movies? That'd be cool.
Are there gas giants but they are oxygen and terrestrial, ? Or is this a size thing where gravity or something else wont allow it?
Alex, huge fan been watching for years and have seen all your videos starting from a realistic representation of the solar system. Last time I commented it was asking for a new video on venus and i like to think my comment wasnt overlooked because you delivered as you always do. Im always excited when i get a notification that you or Astrum Extra posted a new video. Anyways i was wondering if youve seen the netflix show “3 Body Problem” it incorporates aliens, quantum physics, and has a great story to it based on the Wow signal. I wanted to know if you thought maybe “3 Body Problem” was more realistic than alien, avatar, interstellar, or any other movies youve covered. Thanks!
Never expected Avatar to hold up to scientific scrutiny.
Does it, though, or are y'all just a buncha blind stans?
This video was a nice change of pace, Alex. You should do it more often.
my problem: only humanoids breath through their mouths & have 4 extremities. all other animals have breathing holes on the neck & 6 extremities. the humanoids had to have evolved from something reasonably physiologically similar, but there is no evidence of this presented.
There is, the wired monkey thing in the first movie
I noted the same problem. They probably didn't want to 'alienate' the audience.
There's a lemur-like primatey thing with partially fused forelimbs that it uses to swing through trees like a gibbon. If i recall it has one upper arm with two lower arms protruding from the elbow. People think this is meant to be evidence of where the Naavi came from. It has other features similar to a humanoid and if I recall shows transitional features as well.
But the real reason is of course bc they wanted the audience to identify with the aliens and uses detailed motion capture performances to bring them to life which imagine would be harder if they were hexopods
@@RaderGH Noticed that too. They should have had vestigial limbs or something.
Wow what an amazing video. I am still drunk af but just ate. Still so interesting to watch
Glad you did this one! It's a beautiful movie.
A bit of commentary on Pandora's atmosphere: It isn't very plausible. High levels of methane, hydrogen sulfide, and ammonia are not compatible with high levels of oxygen as the mix is thermodynamically unstable. These gases would be a source of free energy for any organisms that evolved to use them. Even on Earth, there are methanotrophs that use atmospheric oxygen. High levels of xenon while physically possible, are not cosmochemically likely. High CO2 may be possible, but are very lipid soluble, which may complex life difficult (actually, xenon would do this as well).
A strong enough magnetic field to levitate a mountain would cause the iron in a humans blood to boil.
One thing that is ignored is the effect of xenon on sound wave frequencies.
This is why I love avatar because of all the realism it has everything from the near future technology, the flora and fauna, and Pandora itself!
if Pandora is as close to it's parent planet as Io is to Jupiter, then theirs one issue, io experiences massive tidal forces cause by Jupiter's gravitational pull, and by it's sister moons too, which causes frequent volcano eruptions and quakes on it's surface, making it impossible for complex life to survive there, so I'm afraid to say that a earth like moon orbiting so close to a gas giant, may not be possible in real life.
Before I watch, is there spoilers from Avatar 2 in this video? I haven't watched it yet. Thanks.
HELLO? CAN ANYONE REPLY? DOES THIS SPOIL THE SECOND MOVIE?
Day 8 of not knowing if this spoils the second movie.
Day 12 of not knowing if this spoils the second movie.
Month 3 of not knowing if this spoils the second movie.
Hi, does this spoil the second movie? I haven't seen it yet still.
If magnetism was strong enough to make float heavy loads, any metal tools will be strongly affected by pull/pushed (weapons, choppers ... )
Biggest problem I have with hallelujah mountains is where does all that water comes from?
Rain? It's a rainforest. The humidity and condensation are intense.
I don't know about the second movie but the first one certainly put some effort into trying to make it a bit more in the right direction than your generic scifi.
Especially with who they had help them with designing the creatures
Perhaps you should have bought and read _"The Science of Avatar"_ by Steven Baxter who is a sci fi author with a background in engineering and mathematics and sticks close to real science in his novels before making this episode. It's supposed to answer all the questions posed in this video.
The question is what radial distance does the moon need to NOT be tidally locked? Mercury is tidally locked to the sun. The images in the movie imply the moon is close to the gas giant so it would be tidally locked. That's the killer... if the moon was further out it might have its own rotation. This also helps the radiation problem. Cameron wanted a great visual but ruined the physics... not that most audiences would know that.
Unobtanium is not a metal, it's a compound as all other high-temperature superconductors are.
Unobtanium?! Are you fugging kidding me 🙄
@@floepiejane It's a real engineering slang for something with ideal qualities that doesn't exist. I can see it becoming a nickname for a thing like this, I don't get the backlash.
@@Ali-bu6lo I would just assume that in-universe it does have a scientific name that describes the chemical structure precisely, but as such names are long and cumbersome someone jokingly called it unobtainium (referencing some obscure piece of classical cinema) and the name stuck.
If the gravity was tht high to have floating mountains i dont see how navi even walk.flaoting mountains must be because the rocks are filled with some elements
I was thinking maybe the Floating Mountains might be possible if Pandora orbits just *barely* on the Roche limit. Close enough that a tiny little part of the planet is just a *liiiiiiittle* bit too close to the Gas Giant
Then the moon should be experiencing near-constant moonquakes 😢
@@guyman1570Not just that. It would be a volcanic inferno.
Call me a chump but the first time I saw this video in my subs the thumbnail was on an Pandora creature, and I didn't think that'd be interesting. Now you've changed it to being about the planet and that peaked my interest and here I am - thanks for the change!