Why I Chose Pandora

My Name is Travis Hendricks, and I have chosen to examine the planet Pandora for my blog. Pandora is a fictional planet in the Milky Way galaxy located about 4.37 light years away from Earth. Since I first saw it in the movie Avatar, directed by James Cameron, I have found Pandora fascinating. I chose to examine it for this blog because Pandora is vastly different from anywhere on Earth, and admittedly, I'd love to watch Avatar from a geographically analytical perspective. In addition, the fact that Pandora is actually a moon which orbits a sun and not a planet makes it interesting. Its gravity is 20% weaker than that of earth and its air is 20% more dense. I imagine that these differences can account for the difference between the flora and fauna found on Pandora versus that on Earth.

A view of Pandora from its Stratosphere. Notice its similarity to Earth in appearance.

Most of all, I want to be able to determine the plausibility of the floating mountains found throughout Pandora and explain how they might be possible, and if not, why not. Since Pandora cannot be actually visited, I think it will be interesting to examine it through watching parts of the film and researching it through the Avatar wiki pages.

The floating mountains found on Pandora.

Images and statistics found at:
http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Pandora