Grading Darwin IV from Alien Planet on its Scientific Realism

In this episode, I'll be looking at the planet Darwin IV from the sci-fi/documentary, Alien Planet, and grading it on its scientific accuracy.
0:00 - Darwin IV's Canonical Description
4:00 - Anomaly 01: An Inaccurate Astronomical Designation
4:44 - Anomaly 02: An Unrealistically High Density
5:25 - Anomaly 03: Surprising Volcanic Activity
6:40 - Anomaly 04: A Lucky Guess, But A Bad Choice
7:48 - Anomaly 05: Equatorial Mountain Range
9:35 - Grading Darwin IV On Its Accuracy
#alienplanet

[@Temtatork]

To be fair, if Darwin IV was in the middle of a mass extintion, maybe the planet is far younger than earth and is actually passing a transition to become like Mars, that would explain the vulcanism in such small planet

[@dracodracarys2339]

The weird thing about Darwin IV is how all its creatures look completely unrelated to one another, to the point that the only attempt at classification is based on their number of legs, which would basically be saying that snakes are worms and humans are birds

[@lotusnaturals1897]

but if the roles were reversed it would be a bit hard to determine which animals are closest related on earth. I would never have guessed, if I was an alien, that the closest living relatives to Whales were Hippos but yeah the limb thing also doesn't make sense

[@yarpen26]

What's bugging me the most about them is sound being the primary channel of communication which is idiotic on so many levels. For starters, 90% of the planet seems to be composed of nothing but vast planes and other sorts of open spaces so a sound wave would dissipitate fairly quickly. Just imagine a blind tiger and deer standing in a windy meadow a few meters away from each other and being 100% oblivious to each other's presence. That's not to mention how Darwin IV species seem to act as if they actually did have eyes: they turn their heads in a peculiar way, they beat it the moment a predator appears in their supposedly nonexistent line of sight... Earth alone teaches us that sound is only taken up as the primary sense in environments when light can't be counted upon: deep underwater, caves, underground... Eyesight has evolved independently in multiple distinct species. Vision quite simply can't be beat in the universe: it's fast and reliable, allows for a balanced ecosystem to take shape, and the emergence of life forms is already likely to indicate an abundance of light.

[@adamfarrell661]

Aren't the rayback, arrow tongue, prairie ram and one other related? Also the groveback and keeled slider look similar.

[@ecogreen123]

i mean if you only got a look at 10 species of earth animals would you be able to accurately guess the correct classification records of all the others?

[@dontforgetyoursunscreen]

Plato actually said we are featherless birds

[@user-uh9vs3cw5d]

Amazing work as always, Alien planet is definitely a childhood fav of mine!

[@halogunner0295]

I decided to get back into this a year ago and im happy to say that i did, alien life always captivated me when i was a kid to the point i got a very good grade in 8th grade on a similiar subject like this but it was more focused on earth life though but never the less i hope one day when i get the money and the will power i wish to invest more of my time in biology or atleast in speculative zoology

[@kingdomofvinland8827]

@@AlienPlanetology can you make a review on the planet kharak from the Homeworld franchise?

[@douglasallar9176]

Same

[@rossglore345]

Hey, youtube has been recommending me some truly weird videos lately, but it seems to have hit a home run with yours. Your commentary is great to watch. Keep up the great work! Also I'm glad you reviewed Darwin IV. Sometimes I have to remind myself this documentary existed.

[@rodneykelly8768]

The problem I had with the program was the number of species that were solely dependent on each other. For example, the trunk suckers and the dagger wrists. The trunk suckers are dependent on the dagger wrists to cut grooves in the plaque bark trees, and the dagger wrist are seen preying only on the trunk suckers. the other example is the sea strider and the Amoebic Sea.

[@mattdombrowski8435]

You might think so, but this kind of relationship happens fairly often. Plants often have one or a very small number of pollinators, to pick one example. Also, we don't know if there could be other species performing similar roles. If you were to visit earth for a few months and visit each site only once, you might conclude that honey bees are the only species that can pollenate flowers.

[@yarpen26]

Still better than Netflix Another World's absurd system of mutual dependency between, I think, three distinct species. It was the episode with the lemur things in it. A clearcut example of going way overboard with the weirdness just so nobody in the comments would go "meh, actually I don't think an alien world would feature animals behaving like they do on Earth".

[@rustyshackleford234]

The amoebic sea and sea strider make sense. The amoebic sea is probably millions of years older than the sea striders, who evolved to feed off of it.

[@julianodobler2782]

Great video as usual, man! Im a big fan of the documentary despise the flawed science presented in it. I have some minor constructive considerations regarding the system and the planet. My sources include the original book (which was the inpiration for the show) and the brochure that came with the DVD of Alien Planet: Pages 11-12: The Darwin system consists of at least one F-type-main-sequence star and six planets. It not made clear if both stars in the system are F-type stars, although they are said to be very different in size and orbit each other very close. Page 15: It was observed that it rarely rains on Darwin IV. This is emphasized in the documentary as well. We can therefore theorize that the air on Darwin IV holds very little water vapor (the documentary bizarrely says the contrary though), which is corroborated by the fact that most of the flora is of the succulent type. The mountain-peaks on Darwin IV often lack snow, a strong sign of lacking humidity in the air as well. Page 48: In the book, the moons appear perfectly circular in shape (unlike the moons shown in the documentary), both appearing much smaller than our own moon in relation to the Earth (maybe its a scenario like Hoth?). The brochure also gives some information which is not stated in either the book or documentary: The planet’s age (2 billion years old) and the density of its atmosphere (2 times that of Earth). Little is said in the book about the air of the planet, only that it is denser than Earth’s and that it is rich in oxygen. We also get a glimpse of planets Darwin I-III, all apparently larger than Darwin IV. No sign of Darwin V and VI though. A theory of mine about the Equatorial Mountain Range: Darwin IV’s mountains reminds me a bit of the moon Iapetus, since it has a similar mountain chain which almost perfectly girdles the moon’s equator. Maybe the formation process of both bodies could be similar. What do you think? A theory i saw online about the atmosphere itself: Since Darwin IV was dominated by a hothouse climate in its past (the atmosphere was full of water vapor and the planet had proper oceans) and considering that it orbits at least one F-type star (which has a stronger energy output and stronger solar winds than our own sun), this might actually explain why the planet is so dry and why it has such a dense, oxygen-rich atmosphere: Due to the strong greenhouse effect, the planet started to heat up to a point where the water was evaporating and being split up by radiation into oxygen and hydrogen at the same rate, with the hydrogen being carried off to space by solar wind. The majority of Darwin IV’s currently high oxygen may have been produced this way. At some point, the atmosphere would have simply run out of enough water vapor to keep up its hothouse climate and, with most of its surface water and forests gone, the surface began reflecting more radiation than it was previously absorbing, increasing albedo and cooling down the planet. By the time of both the book and the documentary, the planet cooled down enough that most of the water left became concentrated in the polar ice caps. Just a guess though... I have no idea about the planet's axial tilt, maybe looking at the official art piece made for the documentary can tell us something... Sorry for the long comment and for all the possible typos, just thought it was interesting to share it with you. Keep up with the good work!

[@julianodobler2782]

@@AlienPlanetology Dont worry, your reply wasnt long at all. Im happy i could bring something to the discussion. Actually, i dont have the physical book with me, just a PDF file that a friend of mine sent me years ago, he scanned the whole book. I can send it to you if youre interested. Theres also the online document, it has better image quality but the pages are quite sloppy... I forgot to mention in my previous reply that the brochure actually shows Darwin IV orbiting only one of the stars (Darwin A), alongside Darwin III, which makes the documentary's claim stronger compared to the book's. Also, Darwin II and I are shown to orbit Darwin B (which is smaller than A, but not by much). Error from my part. The DVD material and the book often contradict each other, as well both contradity the documentary, which makes any serious analysis quite difficult. I think your hypothesis about Iapetus's ridge makes a lot of sense, i cant see actual tectonic processes happening in such a small, icy moon. I sadly deleted the section about the sonar-using lifeforms due to a silly mistake from my part while editing the text and i wasnt able to include it back in the comment (KZbin was blocking it somehow). Good thing it actually made some sense though! On the subject of Darwin IV's axial tilt, I was thinking of using a image editing software to amplify the image and use a protractor to messure the distance between the north (or south) pole and the shadow line in degrees. Although, thinking better now, this method might not work very well since we dont know the inclination of the planet compared to its stars...

[@julianodobler2782]

@@AlienPlanetology Alright! I will send it right away. KZbin is deleting the comment with the link... Darwin V and IV are not shown either orbiting a single star or both of them, which is weird as hell :x

[@EyalLeonard]

Hi, I'd love to hear your analysis of the planet (moon) Jinx from Larry Niven's known space, I know it's a niche pick but it's the coolest geology i've seen in sci fi I don't remember Asimov going deep & dirty on number crunching but any of the planets we're going to see in Foundation would be potential hot picks, and If you're not too shy to be an alien weather man Dr Mann's frozen cloud planet from interstellar could be very interesting.

[@lewhensilvar3521]

Great suggestion

[@barbarahill988]

Enjoyed this,a fan of your work.keep it up.looking forward to the next one

[@xander2853]

I feel like irl your interstellar ship would have some kind of ISRU system to make vehicles for exploration and infrastructure for future missions. If you are paying to get something to another star, you’re going to get the most out of it.

[@Littlekoji-df1cf]

This is by far the best spec alien world.

[@eddo2169]

Agree

[@astrognosis]

Amazing workn, keep it up

[@Dianasaurthemelonlord7777]

This Channel is amazing... Love the work.

[@Dianasaurthemelonlord7777]

@@AlienPlanetology Your welcome. it just popped up this afternoon, Watched this episode... Subbed with notifications on in less than 5 minutes, A new record...

[@Undine1225]

Awesome video!

[@Liphted]

I loved this and saw it when it premiered.

[@rageraptor7127]

Why don’t we get documentaries like these anymore. There so much more interesting than the randoms talking about planets for 90 minutes with no visuals.

[@domidium]

Ikr?! I'd like to see narrative documentaries like this for "All Tomorrows."

[@SheosMan117]

Hey, I just discovered this video, and thus, this channel. Your bit about satellite realism of all things made me wonder: How realistic is Remnant's moon in RWBY? Basically, the issue is it's shattered. There's one section that's majorly broken and shattered. It also stays that way, with no known motion of the parts, relative to each other, they just kind of stay there. Sort of. The moon is not tidally locked, so views of said moon can vary, but the broken parts always stick to where they are, relative to the section of moon they're above. So sometimes you see the moon looking like some giant meteor, with rocks trailing behind it. (Not that it'll actually fall.) And other nights, you see the whole thing, with all the broken bits on the dark side.

[@laurentiuvladutmanea3622]

Great video!

[@lemaro1977]

cool video!!

[@Cainite]

Still alive, eh? Good stuff!

[@Amit_Gupta216]

There could be a planet orbiting quite close to Darwin 4 (its a gas giant Jupiter mass gas giant) due to its gravitational pull Darwin 4 has intense volcanism. Just like the Kepler 39 start system where Kepler 39b has to suffer from intense volcanism due to gravitational pull of its sibling planet Kepler 39c. That's what keeps Darwin 4 geologically active.

[@titan-1802]

i am willing to stick to the Radioactive Element Theory. however, The actual Kepler 39 System only consists of an F7V Type Star and an Object that could be a Jovian Planet or Brown Dwarf, there was no second confirmed object orbiting Kepler-39, unless if your confusing Kepler-39 with another Star system

[@michaelmccarthy5166]

Hi there, new fan!!

[@igorrovinion3782]

One thing that always bothered me about the documentary was that the scarcity of water is one of the premises, when in fact water is one of the most common materials in our universe.

[@amazingbro6723]

I love the new realism grade

[@KawaiiFlandre495]

I am big fan of this sci-if/documentary.

[@fabriziobiancucci7702]

I love this documentary. Where I can found it?

[@nicholaspokorny5058]

Please cover some of the planets from the Netflix series Alien Worlds.

[@thestrangecrisismalachi4121]

What would happen if a human did not weared an oxygen mask on darwin 4

[@greyideasthetheliopurodon4640]

The spectra type for the larger star is F acoording to the book

[@eddo2169]

Wow this is the best!

[@exganttooo9321]

Dude i love your accent and I'm a sucker for alien planets and speculative biology

[@benjaminswenson-mayer7021]

when will there be an episode about 4546b?

[@kratos4153]

I like you videos Suggestion: Reach (Halo)

[@amazingbro6723]

@@AlienPlanetology awesome :)

[@XmortoxX1990]

Probably there's more info about Darwin IV in the book "Expedition'

[@XmortoxX1990]

@@AlienPlanetology OH I see

[@plantnt489]

Just for curiosity, why you call the moon "Luna" and the sun "Sol"? are those their real names?

[@mossyart6435]

I am making a speclutive alien on my sketch book and thank u for the information

[@mossyart6435]

@@AlienPlanetology yes it's a fictional systems and the star is a M-type also the planet name is Hades-11-D. And People of earth evacuated there own planet because of the carbon dioxide greenhouse effect killing million of species and they take alot of species of earth and transport it to Hades-11-D to have a second chance earth life form live again and the native animal life form of Hades-11-D try to live together with there new animal from earth

[@greyideasthetheliopurodon4640]

Darwin Iv actually first came from Wyan Barlowes expidition back in 80s

[@greyideasthetheliopurodon4640]

@@AlienPlanetology there is map online hold on

[@greyideasthetheliopurodon4640]

@@AlienPlanetology yeah, the book says that one of the stars is an f type star

[@yosugarboo]

you could make one video about the moon k-23 on The Midnight Sky by Netflix, that would be interesting

[@nibirbaishnabchannel4650]

one things that makes it unrealistic is wayne barlowe's art style is real dedicated to drawing hell

[@titan-1802]

though, that's not important in the case of Expedition and Darwin IV.

[@nibirbaishnabchannel4650]

@@titan-1802you can still get that surreal uncanny grotesque vibe

[@titan-1802]

@@nibirbaishnabchannel4650 yeah, good point.

[@NibirBaishnab]

​@@titan-1802and also darwin iv is desolate sci fi made by an artist of hell that has something to do with unrealism even if the text of the book may deny

[@kingquazer1445]

One thing I never understood about the animal life one darwin 4 was none of them evolved eyes despite living in a environment with light?

[@Khannea]

The original source book is much more grounded. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_(book)

[@quierosaberde2284]

i have always had the doubt that problems would have for the evolution of complex life the lack of a large moon, I have always known that it is a requirement for long-term stability, for the evolution of life, being mars or venus inability to meet this requirement and Darwin 4 also, besides that if planet like this can maintain high oxygen levels lacking oceans or large areas of vegetation

[@quierosaberde2284]

@@AlienPlanetology as it is, without the stabilizing effect of the moon, the earth for example would stumble in its tilt axis, making climate changes very disastrous and constant, complicating the evolution of life to a more complex level, this information that I have read in different media, even in this same documentary Dr. Michio Kaku, mentions the importance of a large moon and having a jupiter in the system

[@bobthelonghairedboi5425]

I'm giving it 20 years until we find a planet very similar to this one, I just have this feeling that we will be able to map the surfaces of exoplanets in the very near future perhaps, proxima b looks like this planet

[@Damian-cilr2]

the only problem with proxima b is it would be tidally locked due to its proximity to proxima cen and that red dwarfs are flare stars,but the strongest stellar flares from red dwarfs come from the poles,though take it with a grain of salt because the study that said that the flares coming from the poles had a rather small sample size of 4

[@bobthelonghairedboi5425]

@@Damian-cilr2 yeah only time will tell we just gotta wait until they look at it with jwst

[@electrik_loss]

The documentary of Darwin IV has always been my favorite, although it has its issues. The book it's based on, Expedition, has a lot better documentation.

[@thestrangecrisismalachi4121]

Darwin 4 atmosphere is breathable right

[@thestrangecrisismalachi4121]

@@AlienPlanetology sooo, they will where oxygen masks

[@christmassnow3465]

The description of the water cycle is very weird as well. Most of the surface water has evaporated and the air is very humid, yet there are hardly any rains? forest pockets and mostly savannas and deserts? It is more prudent to assume that most water has evaporated into space due to solar winds. Water molecules are ionized by solar radiation, and break up into oxygen and hydrogen. Hydrogen, the lightest of the two elements, is easily kicked out by solar wind, leaving the denser oxygen behind, enriching the atmosphere with it.

[@skyworldart]

I thought it was the size of venus?? Or was that just in the book

[@skyworldart]

@@AlienPlanetology your probably right, i need to read it again

[@kishlayverma6622]

do a video on cybertron

[@TheAutobotPower]

Scientists, and George Lucas XD

[@greyideasthetheliopurodon4640]

Oh boi

[@honorboundfate9521]

We got people rating planets now?! Shit, somebody hide the halo rings!

[@thestrangecrisismalachi4121]

Neet video

[@TrajGreekFire]

what about the book version of Darwin IV

[@TrajGreekFire]

@@AlienPlanetology I think it's because Barlowe was involved in the creation of the docummentary. By the way, would you look at the Aurelia and Blue moon from extraterrestial special?

[@Clossis]

love this video, but you got to think, this was 2005 right? our knowledge is different then

[@Clossis]

@@AlienPlanetology Thats true

[@homosapien8828]

1:10 they are all sentient?

[@Amit_Gupta216]

The planet Darwin 4 is just Mars but habitable. Well it could turn like Mars in few billion years if it's magnetic field shuts down. Well it would probably be not habitable in few billion years. The same thing happened with Mars.

[@danilorainone406]

no earthlike running water/rivers lakes,a neat scifi pgm,but,every 30 seconds of planet scenes,we got 2-3 minutes of eggheads telling us what we are seeing,, I'd hope for a darwin IV the second trip,so we could have a human team drop down and meet the floating alien guys see what they do with dinner nd what their young look like

[@DGPPhysics]

6.5 light years there’s not such binary star like in this system I remember watched this documentary and I see how unrealistic is it.

[@b_radbrad8899]

You should read the original book. its better than the movie

[@Sorinoir]

0:20 they really named it after a nazi?

[@titan-1802]

Basically the same Person who Designed and Co-developed the V-2 Rocket.