In Avatar, what is the name of Pandora’s giant neighboring planet?

Polyphemus is the giant neighboring planet around which Pandora orbits in Avatar.

James Cameron’s film presents Pandora as a moon in the Alpha Centauri system, not as an independent planet. Polyphemus is the massive gas giant that dominates Pandora’s sky and establishes the moon’s astronomical setting. Its name comes from Polyphemus, the Cyclops encountered by Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey.

This detail is easy to confuse with Eywa, which is the name given to Pandora’s vast biological and spiritual network, or Toruk, the large flying predator known in Na’vi culture. Neither is the neighboring planet. The film and its expanded fictional material use several invented names, making the astronomical relationship especially useful for distinguishing them.

Pandora’s environment is fictional rather than a literal prediction of a known exomoon. The film nevertheless uses recognizable ideas from planetary science, including tidal effects, a gas-giant host, unusual gravity, and a complex atmosphere. These elements help make the setting feel like a functioning planetary system.