How can science fiction have such bad science?

Right off the bat I’m going WTF?

A big point that drives the plot of this movie is the so-called “discovery” of a new moon orbiting Jupiter - one possibly sufficient for humanity to populate.

What a load of horse dung.

Galleleo was capable of discovering the four largest moons orbiting Jupiter with one of his crude telescopes, and we’re supposed to believe a fifth moon the same size as these has somehow managed to avoid detection all these centuries despite all the probes we’ve sent? Seriously??

Then there’s the “this quadrant of space hasn’t been mapped” silliness. Space is a fluid, constantly changing dynamic environment. We don’t “map” it in the traditional sense, we keep track of where objects are and where they’re going. We don’t pick vague areas and “map” them, at least not in the way this movie expects us to believe.

The cardinal rule of science fiction is, to the best of your ability, get the science part right.