A tidally locked planet does not rotate in relation to its sun. One side is always day, one, always night. This is caused by tidal forces pulling all planets towards this same equilibrium, so it’s completely stable once it does occur…a tidally locked planet at an earthlike distance from the sun would be scorching heat on one side, freezing ice on the other.
What about at different distances? Is there a band of orbital distance where the night side of a tidally locked planet is warm enough for liquid water? Or one far away enough that the day side can have oceans?
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Who knows, maybe life is possible on the ring of twilight where it’s not too hot and not too cold. The planet where the Twi’leks in Star Wars are from is that way. Always sounded plausible to me.
Been doing some googling. Most stars are dwarf stars, and the habitable band of a red dwarf is so close the tidal forces are way stronger. It might turn out that most habitable planets are tidally locked.
There’s a book called The City In The Middle Of The Night that takes place on a tidally locked planet. It has politics, science fiction, and lesbians.
My favorite things!
It also kinda makes you feel like shit, but in a really good way.
Even better
Temperatures would be okay in the twilight zone, not sure about water, but winds would blow you out of your shoes.
What about a planet so distant from its star that the day side gets as much light as earth at twilight? 2AU from a sol size star, there should be a quarter as much light during the day. What about there?
It’s worth noting that the human eye has a very wide range that it can adjust for brightness. Full daylight is 10000 lux, a room where visual tasks aren’t being performed can easily be 100 lux. 2500 lux would be very bright light in an indoor environment. From a societal perspective, this likely wouldn’t be enough to have an impact. From an ecological perspective, it could have a significant impact.
