Can the Meissner effect explain very large floating structures?

James Cameron's Avatar featured floating mountains which stayed aloft due to the Meissner effect; they contained large quantities of the room-temperature superconductor unobtainium, which, due to their strong electromagnetic fields, were suspended above the ground.

Would this really work though? I've seen the concept criticized - see here - and I was wondering if you could help me overcome the flaws in the movie's floating islands; namely the fact that

• A superconductor can't just give off a magnetic field without a current
• The magnetic field would have to be so big, dense and strong that it could be uninhabitable for humans
• I'd rather not just magic an RC superconductor onto the periodic table unless it theoretically could exist on my planet but not Earth

I would also like to know how such a huge magnetic field could be produced naturally. Some requirements:

• The floating boulders I want have to be able to exist as large as houses
• The planet must be habitable to non-extremophilic animal life
• It is a planet, not a moon of a gas giant - so no help from Jupiter-like planets with metallic hydrogen outer cores

posted over 5 years ago

SealBoi‭

9 reputation 73 0 1 0