Traveler's Guide: Pandora

[mmosu]

Found a cool "map" of the habitable regions of Pandora - impressive that someone took the time to do this:
[smg id=2542 align=center width=700]

[mmosu]

The picture didn't copy over very clearly, so here's a direct link to the source:
http://borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/Pandora

Some interesting info about the planet is contained here.  Some of it is gleaned from things mentioned in passing during Echo communications with different characters, such as the 90 hour days, no true night (but rather a "dim cycle") and the fact that one Pandoran year is roughly equal to 10 Earth years.  It's also mentioned that the first human settlements were established during the planet's long winter, during which much of the hostile wildlife hibernates.  When the spring came these species awoke to find intruders in their home, and this explains why so many of the human settlements on the planet seem abandoned.  Apparently drastic weather changes accompany the seasons on the planet, which when combined with rapid human pollution resulted in drastic alteration of the planet's surface.  A good example can be seen in the Parched Fathoms (area where the Secret Armory DLC takes place) where a once vast sea has dried up in an apparently short period of time, as shown by the fact that there are still lifeboats located around the outer wall of T-bone Junction.  Cool stuff  :-X

[Art Blade]

cool find :) Cheers  :-X

[JRD]

Thanks a lot mmosu... that wiki is absolutely great!  :-X :-X

[mmosu]

Agreed  :-X Too bad the place is overrun with, well, you know . . .  ;D

I especially like the part of discussion about inferences that can be made about what Pandora's solar system must look like based on what is visible from the planet's surface.  Several observations jump out:
1) The planet has at least one moon, which is always at least partially visible no matter the time of day.
2) There is never a visible sun in the sky, which means the planet's orbit is tidally locked, meaning the same side of the planet (the one we're on) is always facing away from it's sun and receives light indirectly by reflection from it's moon. 
3) If the orbit is tidally locked, it means that the other side of Pandora must be a raging, uninhabitable furnace on which the sun never sets.  If the sun is intense enough that it's reflection turned the "dark" side of the planet into an arid wasteland, imagine what direct exposure would be like! 
4) It also means that the day and "dim" cycles of the planet have to be caused by either the planet itself partially eclipsing it's moon and thus partially blocking the light from the sun, or by the shadow cast by another body that orbits the sun much more quickly than either Pandora or it's one visible moon.
5) There would be either no tides, or at least very minimal tidal changes, since the largest nearby body hovers perpetually over the same half of the planet.
6) Come to think of it, there is also the possibility that Pandora itself is the moon, and the large "moon" we see in it's sky is actually a much larger planet around which Pandora has a locked orbit.

Very cool, I like discussions of inference like this, and I've always been fascinated with the concept that the seasons and signs of passing time occur very differently on other planets (even fictional ones  ;D).