Felipe Rodriguez

Physics 1040
Professor Van Ausdal
December 1, 2017
Prometheus Science within the film

Prometheus is a movie that was released in June 2012. The premise of the film is an
exploratory team of scientists on a journey to a moon of a planetary system far away from our
own. They believe that ancient writings here on Earth hint at an alien civilization, engineers,
created us and their goal is to make contact by going where the hieroglyphics point. Theres a
lot of science in this film, some that may at some point be possible, and some that seems
somewhat far-fetched. In this essay, I will explore what is currently within our grasp and what is
not. The three main topics I will discuss will be space exploration outside our solar system, the
probability of finding else outside our planet, and the geology and weather patterns of the
moon featured in the film.
In the beginning of the scientists journey, we learn that they are about 35 light years
away from Earth. This means they would have needed to travel over 200 trillion miles. Yet we
are also told that their journey took about 2 years from the Earth to arrive to this moon. This
math just doesnt add up. They would have needed to travel at speed much faster than light
travels, which is just not possible, and the energy needed to travel at such a speed wasnt
apparent in the journey or their spaceship. According to Albert Einsteins theory of special
relativity, light always travels at the same speed in a vacuum.
This is not to say that some particles havent come close to the speed of light. Scientists
at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe were able to accelerate particles that reached 99.9% the
speed of light. Initially, they were under the impression that they had discovered a particle that
traveled faster than the speed of light. Soon after this discovery, they realized that a bad
connection of a fiber cable was responsible for the erroneous reading. They explain, After
tightening the connection and then measuring the time it takes data to travel the length of the
fiber, researchers found that the data arrive 60 nanoseconds earlier than assumed on a news
article published on telegraph.co.uk.
The second scientific topic discussed in the film is the probability that our species was
engineered. Currently, there is an enormous amount of evidence supporting the theory of
evolution. Put simply, the theory of evolution is the process by which organisms change over
time as a result of changes in heritable physical or behavioral traits. Changes that allow an
organism to better adapt to its environment will help it survive and have more offspring., as is
explained on a scientific article published on livescience.com. This is even an issue that one of
the scientists in the film brings up by when theyre faced with the claim that weve been
engineered by saying do you have anything to back that up?.
However, this doesnt mean that we can say that there are no forms of life elsewhere in
our universe. But such a claim requires evidence. To claim that alien lifeforms exist, the one
making such a claim must have the necessary evidence to support it, and a claim like this one
would also need an enormous amount of evidence. We know that there are planets or moons
that share some of the characteristics of Earth, like atmospheres and liquid water. There are
many scientists the study the probabilities of alien lifeforms. But probabilities are just that,
probabilities. They are mathematical probabilities, not mathematical certainties. We will not be
able to be entirely certain until we have actual evidence to support it. If at some point in our
history we did become aware of life elsewhere, it would be reasonable to assume that those
lifeforms evolved through a similar way life evolved on Earth, through natural selection, and not
through engineers.
Lastly, this film explores the geology and weather patterns of the moon they believe
hosts life. The geology of this moon is very similar to our planets geology. There are valleys,
mountains, canyons, and an atmosphere with a greenhouse effect. In the first scene after they
arrive, they discover a mountain so high, one of the scientists says, makes Everest look like a
baby brother. When penetrating the atmosphere of this moon, they discover that its made up
of nitrogen, oxygen, and traces of argon gas. When we study planets in our solar system, we
are able to deduce that atmospheres vary from planet to planet, some containing very strong
greenhouse effects, while others have no atmospheres at all. This part of the film seems to be
very accurate in the way its portrayed.
Scientists in the film are also met with a very violent storm as they explore the surface
of the moon. The storm contains silica, paired with very strong winds and static electricity. In
Saturn and Jupiter, weve discovered that it could be possible for diamonds to fall as rain. This is
because of the density of these planets and the temperatures of their cores. Dr. Kevin Baines of
the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Nasas Jet Propulsions Laboratory explains, The
bottom line is that 1,000 tons of diamonds a year are being created on Saturn. People ask me -
how can you really tell? Because there's no way you can go and observe it. It all boils down to
the chemistry. And we think we're pretty certain. Different geology of planets and moons
along with an array of different factors can drastically affect conditions on any given planetary
body.
In summary, this science fiction film contains very interesting and intriguing claims
about space travel and extraterrestrial life. As discussed, some of the science behind the film
makes sense, and some doesnt. Nevertheless, its a very thrilling film that opens a conversation
about what could be possible in the future, and whats even more exciting is that none of it
could be possible without a deep understanding of the scientific process.

References
https://www.livescience.com/474-controversy-evolution-works.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/large-hadron-collider/9102355/Large-Hadron-
Collider-at-CERN-Einstein-was-right-all-along.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-24477667