Avatar's Pandora possible within years?
The concept of life on the moon may currently be limited to sci-fi blockbusters such as James Cameron's Avatar, but a leading astronomer has suggested it could become a reality in just a few years.
Cameron's 3D film centres on a race of blue-skinned giants which inhabit Pandora, an Earth-like moon orbiting a gas planet similar to Jupiter that cannot support life.
While Avatar has received much hype for its pioneering special effects, US astronomer and Harvard research associate Lisa Kaltenegger is excited about the film for a different reason.
"All of the gas giant planets in our solar system have rocky and icy moons," explains Dr Kaltenegger, who believes there is every chance a real-life version of Pandora will soon be found.
Dr Kaltenegger, who is based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, claims it is possible that alien Jupiters (gas planets that have not yet been discovered) will also have moons, some of which may be Earth-sized and able to hold onto an atmosphere.
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