Category Archives: sci-fi movies

sci-fi movies, science fiction, star trek

The Once and Future Universe

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Fans of the Cosmos

I just spent the weekend at a fan-based “con” called StarFest, held near Denver, Colorado. I go back each year to give science talks, which also allows me to indulge my inner fangeek for the various bits and piece of the science fiction/sci-fi universes that I follow. I know a lot of people scoff at these cons because all they see (or think they see) are people dressing up as storm troopers or Federation officers and so on.

That’s certainly one aspect, which is an enjoyable one because people are SO darned inventive with their costumes. And, in reality, they aren’t different from devotees of wargaming, Civil War re-enacting, SCA activities and Renaissance Festival activities. I heard from friends of mine a while back that there is a lot of interest in Germany, for example, in stories of the American Old West, with people dressing up as characters, etc.

Anyway, back to StarFest.  I gave two talks, one about the Sun and solar activity, and the other one about the search for exoplanets and extraterrestrial life. Had a great time doing them and people asked a LOT of really good questions!

Those questions are why I love to talk at Cons.  It seems like there is a higher number of people really motivated to love astronomy and space science who attend these events. It was evident from my conversations in the hallways, at the art show, in the coffee shop, etc. that they READ more about it. And, they want to know more. This Con had some well-known actors attending to talk about their roles in various shows. I happened to be taking a break in the con’s guest relaxation area and got to talking with one of the actors who turned out to have a HUGE interest in astronomy, to the point where he said that he reads whatever he can get his hands on about the subject. We had a pretty entertaining conversation until it was time for him to go do another appearance. He asked for my card so he could write with more questions.

A group of attendees joined me for coffee in the hotel Starbucks and they were peppering me with questions about Miguel Alcubierre’s research into warp drive. They’d read everything they could find (more than I had, I must admit), and were just so excited about the idea that warp drive isn’t so farfetched after all. It spurred me to read more about the work being done to achieve such a thing.

I came away from the con (as I do each year) impressed with the enthusiastic reception of science — astronomy, space science, planetary science, etc. — by many of the con attendees. It didn’t seem to matter if they were steampunk fans or science fiction readers or Star Wars devotees or Firefly fanatics or followers of Battle Star Galactic or any of the other media creations out there. Many attendees had a basic interest in new things happening in science. And, they bring their  kids, who are REALLY the wave of the future.  I talked to a few young’uns who didn’t have any idea who Shatner’s Captain Kirk was, but they were interested in finding out more about him and the Trekiverse because of what Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk did.  One little guy wearing a Superman cape told me with great confidence that he’d be one of the first engineers to live full time on the Moon. His mom (a real-life engineer) just beamed.

I’m a life-long science fiction reader and Trekkie. While the early NASA missions were what spurred my interest in the stars after my dad showed me the night time sky, I can honestly say that SF and Star Trek played a huge role, too. And, that’s a great thing. The both present stories about people (albeit in the future), living their lives with technologies that seem farfetched to us today, but are utterly normal to THEM. Perhaps that’s why I like the genres so much. They give us a glimpse of our future in the stars. It’s up to us to make wise decisions about what that future is going to look like!

 

 

 

aliens, extrasolar planets, sci-fi movies

Alien Worlds in SciFi Movies

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Avatar’s Pandora is Beautiful

But Too Good to be True

So, we went to see Avatar last night — in glorious 3D at the IMAX theater.  It’s a beautifully rendered film and I was reminded of scenes from the game Uru (which, nearly a decade ago had similar lovely landscapes).  I won’t go into the storyline in case readers haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’d like to use the world Pandora (where the movie’s action takes place) as a way to talk about other worlds and why they’re never going to be quite like they’re portrayed in the movies.  We’re all pretty used to seeing alien worlds in movies like the Star Trek franchise, Star Wars and others.  There’s a long tradition in science fiction (movies and print) of casting them as places where humans can go and explore. Hence, they kind of have to be places where humans can exist, even if they can only do it in space suits and habitats.  That’s okay — most of us have grown up knowing that humans on the Moon or Mars will be wearing space suits for a long time.  And, that will probably be the case on at least some planets that humans may one day explore beyond the solar system.

However (there’s always a gotcha), the planets have to be at least somewhat approachable and not be instant deathtraps for human explorers.  Io, in our own solar system, is a place that might be fascinating to explore, but it’s embedded in a deadly zone of radiation trapped within Jupiter’s magnetosphere.  While you could theoretically send humans there, they’d have to be really well protected — not a simple thing to do!  And, their habitats might not last very long, shortening their useful exploration time.

Pandora is a planet that seems to be set next to a Jovian-type planet in the movie Avatar. As such, if this Jovian planet is anything like the solar system’s Jupiter, there’s bound to be a HUGE magnetic field emanating from it, and magnetic fields trap charged particles. Where you have charged particles, you get radiation — and voila, Pandora could well be a deathtrap for humans. Yet, in the movie, there are humanoids living there on a lush, green world that defies current understanding of how such a world could exist next to a gas giant. And, there ARE humans there, and we ARE told that Pandora’s atmosphere is deadly to the humans but not the native humanoids.   The humans walk around with masks on (presumably sucking in oxygen), but are otherwise dressed in shirtsleeves.

So, deadly atmosphere and a presumed high-radiation environment don’t exactly say “run around in t-shirts and shorts with a mask on” to me. But hey, I’m willing to suspend disbelief for the sake of the story — I just won’t suspend the laws that govern planetary atmospheres and magnetospheres.  As beautiful as Pandora is in the movie — and hey, I hope that we DO someday find a planet as beautiful as it is — it can’t really exist in reality in the given circumstances of the movie (i.e. smack up next to a Jovian planet, embedded in its magnetosphere, and very likely also feeling the force of the Jovian’s gravity via tidal forces).

That’s just one science quibble I have with the movie. There are others — but I think you see where I’m going with this. Real-life planets around other stars are going to be far more alien than our filmmakers can imagine. They’re going to have their own life forms and appearances and environments that follow the laws of nature.  I think that someday, when our descendents are exploring those worlds, they’ll look back on our movies (if they have access to them) and probably laugh at how simplistic our viewpoint was — that we could remake worlds in our own imaginations and image and ignore the science that governs how worlds are created and how they evolve (with life or without).

All that being said, I really enjoyed the movie. I’ll probably see it again just to catch some details in the story and sets that I missed the first time around.  As long as I (and you) go into it with eyes open to the nuances and enjoy it for what it is, that’s cool.

For another scientist’s viewpoint on Avatar, go to Seth Shostak’s discussion here.

Enjoy!