Pandora is a moon in James Cameron’s Avatar universe.
In the 2009 film Avatar, Pandora orbits the fictional gas giant Polyphemus in the Alpha Centauri star system. The story takes place in the 22nd century, when humans travel to Pandora to mine the valuable mineral unobtanium. The moon’s environment includes dense forests, unusual wildlife, floating mountains, and a biosphere connected through complex biological networks.
Pandora is inhabited by the Na’vi, a tall blue humanoid species whose communities maintain a spiritual and ecological relationship with their world. Human operators use avatars—laboratory-grown Na’vi-human bodies controlled remotely—to interact with the environment and its people.
Pandora is often casually called a planet because it is the main world shown on screen. Astronomically, it is a moon: a natural satellite of Polyphemus. The fictional setting was designed to support the film’s themes of colonial extraction, environmental damage, cultural conflict, and interconnected life.