Scientific inaccuracies in Alien

[Local Trouble]

So scientifically speaking, is 2350 km just as impossible as 1200 km or is it a more reasonable size?

Still pretty darn impossible for a planet with an earth-like gravity and atmosphere. It's like 1/5 the size of Earth.

Edit— if the diameter in that screenshot is right, then the mass and density can't be right based on what we see in the movie.

I guess at some point it's really just a matter of how much disbelief you're willing to suspend for a movie about acid-bleeding space monsters.

After delving into it a little more, I think Xenomrph is exaggerating the impossibility of it.  A planet composed largely of osmium could be around the size of LV-426 and still have near-Earth gravity.

https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/2315/how-small-can-a-planet-be-and-still-have-earth-like-gravity

Posit an even heavier element not found on Earth, but maybe in another star system and there you go.  As I recall, the novelization even makes mention of Dallas worrying that Parker and Brett would go venturing off in search of heavy metals.

The problem is it would need to be entirely made of this miracle element that doesn't exist naturally, and chemistry has a pretty good idea of what's possible. You wouldn't be able to mine it, it would be radioactively unstable, etc.

Not to mention, finding such a miracle element (let alone a stable planet entirely made of the stuff) would be the scientific find of the century on par with something like Solaris.

And maybe it was a big deal back when humanity first encountered such a planet.  For all we know, LV-426 may be the 50th one they've discovered since interstellar exploration began.

Maybe they're taken for granted in 2122, much like FTL.

[Xenomrph]

Lol okay

[426Buddy]

Well for whatever reason the writers of this series haven't considered the inherent issues with having such a small planet with gravity/atmosphere or they just don't care.

[Local Trouble]

If you think that's bad, look at Star Wars.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ilum

[[cancerblack]]

they just don't care.

Nailed it.

[Local Trouble]

Maybe it's something like eezo from Mass Effect.

https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Element_Zero

[426Buddy]

Dare I ask if we know the size of LV-223 or Fiorina 161?

[SM]

LV-223 is mentioned in WYR as 1400km.

Perry just used my timeline entry as a basis for what she wrote for Fiorina.  No size - just "small".

[Local Trouble]

Maybe any exoplanet worth mining is small and filled with heavy, exotic minerals.

[426Buddy]

I guess there's really no point in getting worked up over the 1200km size of LV-426 if every planet in the series is impossibly small for the gravity.

[Immortan Jonesy]

Earth is 12742km & Planet 4 is 2350km. Both planets have the same gravity.

[Local Trouble]

I guess there's really no point in getting worked up over the 1200km size of LV-426 if every planet in the series is impossibly small for the gravity.

It's hard for me to get worked up over "impossible planets" when modern astronomers keep finding them for real.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/07/forbidden-planets-understanding-alien-worlds-once-thought-impossible

Just imagine what other "impossible" things we'll consider passé only a hundred years from now.

[426Buddy]

Earth is 12742km & Planet 4 is 2350km. Both planets have the same gravity.

Yeah that's been the topic of discussion for several pages.

I guess there's really no point in getting worked up over the 1200km size of LV-426 if every planet in the series is impossibly small for the gravity.

It's hard for me to get worked up over "impossible planets" when modern astronomers keep finding them for real.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/07/forbidden-planets-understanding-alien-worlds-once-thought-impossible

Just imagine what other "impossible" things we'll consider passé only a hundred years from now.

Good point

[SM]

Earth is 12742km & Planet 4 is 2350km. Both planets have the same gravity.

Not really, but close enough.

[Xenomrph]

I guess there's really no point in getting worked up over the 1200km size of LV-426 if every planet in the series is impossibly small for the gravity.

To each their own. good thing it's not that small