So, this is a question that has been bugging me since I saw the first movie. Is Captain America's shield possible? I Understand that the actually metal that his shield is made out of, is made up. But is there a metal that is almost indestructible AND lightweight? Or would it have to be "created" by science?

As depicted in the movies, the shield is not possible.

Truly. The properties of the shield metal were made even more fanciful in the most recent Avengers movie. The metal does not appear in the periodic table of the elements, it is merely a convenient plot device.

 

Similarly, human beings traveling at the speed of the Flash would burst into ashes due to atmospheric friction, and mutations in real life are hardly as glamorous as they are to the fictional X Men.

 

Plenty of fiction of a more pedestrian nature requires as much suspension of disbelief.

 

The properties of alloys of known metals have been pretty well explored in the terrestrial environment but working with them in space is likely to bring new discoveries.

 

Zubrin has described the vapor deposition of various carbonyls in manufacturing, for example.

Edited June 7, 201510 yr by Harold Squared