Questions tagged [day-night]
For questions regarding the day-night cycle of a day on a world. Usually regarding the dark-light cycle.
2
votes
4answers
127 views
Day/night cycle science help?
So I am building a world but need help with its day/night cycle and the science to make it work.
The planet has a 32 hours day cycle, however there is only 10 hours of light a day. This planet is ...
3
votes
1answer
94 views
How would a 384 hour day/night cycle on a desert planet affect the weather?
The planet has a slow rotation around its axis, taking 384 hours for a full day and night cycle at the equator. There is one large continent which takes up around one third of the planets surface. The ...
17
votes
8answers
5k views
Why would it be unfortunate for a day length to vary in a planet; other than that Java API developers need to work a few hours more? [closed]
Quoting from the Java Docs:
Unfortunately, as the Earth rotates the length of the day varies. In
addition, over time the average length of the day is getting longer as
the Earth slows.
I am ...
8
votes
3answers
227 views
Effects of 6 hours days on my planet
One of the planets I am working on is supposed to have a day of about 6 earth hours long & I’m wondering what effects this will have on its surface and climate. Also, I don’t know if this is ...
5
votes
6answers
244 views
What sort of setup of a binary star system would allow only one sun to be “up” at a time?
I have a sci-fi/fantasy world with two suns. Only one sun can be present in the sky at a time. A full day-night cycle would be:
Night time
Sun 1 rises
Sun 1 sets
Sun 2 rises
Sun 2 sets
Night time
Is ...
4
votes
5answers
199 views
A planetary region with no night and no tidal locking?
Without tidal locking, would it be possible to have a planet with a region roughly the shape and size of the USA and Canada in which it is always "day"? (By day I mean at least as bright as a clear ...
2
votes
3answers
74 views
How would the people survive in darkness and be affected by the short periods of sunlight?
I'm trying to make a fantasy world with a longer night cycle than day.
With the advice of Renan, 12 hours of proper night, 4 hours of near/partial dark and 8 hours of good light. Similar to earth the ...
8
votes
4answers
365 views
How would flora be affected by longer night than day cycle?
Night/Day Cycle
I'm trying to make a fantasy world with a longer night cycle than day.
With the advice of Renan, 12 hours of proper night, 4 hours of near/partial dark and 8 hours of good light. ...
3
votes
3answers
121 views
How thick does an atmosphere have to be in order to make the sky “light up” during “daytime” human or near human ocular sensitivity?
If a planet were to have a very thin atmosphere how thick or thin would it have to be to allow there to be a daytime and a nighttime given human or near human ocular sensitivity?
In other words, ...
2
votes
2answers
100 views
How would the length of a day-night cycle affect a planet's climate?
I am envisioning a habitable world with an atmosphere comparable to earth's in which one day is extremely long (>100 earth years). Human settlers have successfully colonized a small portion of the ...
2
votes
1answer
92 views
A K-Type Binary Dawn/Dusk in the Equator
In this alternate scenario, Earth is the third planet in a binary star system. One star is a K-type main sequence star--or "orange dwarf"--that has 80% the mass of a G-type main sequence star--or "...
1
vote
1answer
215 views
Earth Orbits a K-Type Star. What Would the Visual Scenery Look Like?
To clarify on the title, K-type main-sequence stars--shortened as "orange dwarves"--are subjects of excitement for astronomers and astrobiologists.
Why?
They emit enough radiation to provide a ...
7
votes
7answers
693 views
Could I have an earth-like planet from which sun and moon would never be simultaneously visible?
On earth there can be hours where the moon is up during the same time the sun is in the sky (daytime moon) due to the combined rotation of earth and orbit of the moon. I would like to have an earth-...
4
votes
1answer
140 views
How does the day/night cycle work on a non-tidally locked moon?
So to keep this simple, imagine a planet much like ours, orbiting a star. For the sake of this example, let's give the planet a 24 hour rotation, and a 364 day orbit around the star.
Now, this planet ...
9
votes
4answers
1k views
Tree growth rings without seasons
Tree growth rings are created because the time of day with sunlight differs throughout the year. How would the inside of a tree look, if it were to grow up on a planet without seasons, where day and ...
1
vote
0answers
79 views
Night/Day Cycle Magic [closed]
How would a world evolve where magic users can either only use magic when the moon is up, or only when the sun is up. How would this effect where magic users live, and how would they interact with the ...
19
votes
13answers
3k views
Terminology for 24 hour wake-sleep cycle on world with longer dark-light cycle?
Take the Jovian moon Ganymede as a real-world example. It has an orbital period of ~7 days around Jupiter, which is effectively its day and its year simultaneously.
My characters will need the words ...
5
votes
1answer
129 views
What would the temperature variation be on this planet? (High eccentricity & slow rotation)
I've been trying to figure out a model (or find a relevant paper) for calculating the approximate day/night and periapsis/apoapsis temperature variation for an earth-like planet that has a high ...
7
votes
2answers
244 views
Spotlight distribution in a hollow earth?
I've been toying with a concept for a hollow/inner Earth universe in which I would like to achieve an even distribution of light. The pickle is that the "sun" of this world operates like a beacon/...
5
votes
1answer
102 views
Climate on a world with a Sun of varying luminosity
Given the daylight cycle discussed here (see the graph in the selected answer), suppose that the moon revolves in the equatorial plane, at a distance sufficient to light (barely) the poles, avoiding a ...
5
votes
3answers
464 views
Could I make this dark and eerie world possible?
The inspiration came from the music in the title sequence of the film Alien. The idea is a planet that humans have colonized where it's almost always drizzling slightly. It's always dark but there is ...
24
votes
16answers
5k views
On a world where everyone is nomadic, how does civilization start?
As previously stated, I am constructing a world that has a day lasting nine years. The inhabitants must always be on the move in order to avoid the freezing wastelands of the night, but not so fast as ...
0
votes
2answers
215 views
How would society without a change in day or night form time, or structure to anything? [duplicate]
I'm working on a conceptual planet that is tidally locked to its star, and that there would be a ring or "twilight" zone of life on the planet. But because of this, there would be no sunset or sunrise....
1
vote
7answers
269 views
Feasibility and challenges of a kingdom existing within an eternal night?
Okay, so admittedly I was going for a title that was a bit more catchy than the actual question, but not by much. On a technical level, the real question is "Feasibility and challenges of why a large ...
10
votes
4answers
822 views
Would a species that migrates across the globe discover its roundness sooner?
I have a world with 9 year days. That is, the day-night cycle here lasts 9 years, where ours lasts a mere 24 hours.
Very similar to a tidally locked planet, except the habitable belt moves. The ...
3
votes
3answers
250 views
What is the optimal circadian rhythm?
We have 24 hour schedules because the earth rotates about once every 24 hours. But what if humans were on a planet that didn't have 24 hour days? Would their bodies adapt to stay awake for far longer ...
3
votes
2answers
243 views
Can a planet with a very long day/night harbor life such as earth?
The year of this planet is 1000 earth days around its star, and its night last half a year.
Can it support life such as earth?
with humans and lush forests and liquid water and good temperatures ...
6
votes
11answers
556 views
How do you achieve the agricultural revolution without agriculture?
On a world I am building, the defining feature of the world if that the days last 9 years instead of 24 hours. This means that the species' living on the world must always migrate to keep up with the ...
0
votes
1answer
184 views
How would life on Earth change if Earth unexpectedly entered an eternal never ending night? [closed]
This question is obviously not plausible, let's just say this somehow works because of magic.
One night, the Sun unexpectedly and out of no where simply does not rise in the morning and then soon ...
3
votes
3answers
258 views
Human colony on distant planet system with very short day-night cycles
I need a planet where the day cycle is short, in particular 16 hours. I read What determines the length of a day on a planet? and Is it physically possible for a planet to have seasons of different ...
3
votes
2answers
295 views
What temperatures could I expect to find on a world with a 9 year day?
I am working on a world where, instead of 24 hours, a day lasts 9 years. On this world the land far exceeds the oceans, to the point where the bodies of water are simply massive lakes (a la the ...
3
votes
4answers
598 views
Could a habitable tidally locked planet have a day and night cycle caused by the eccentricity of its orbit?
I'm trying to think of ways that a habitable tidally locked planet could have something that resembles a day/night cycle. Shadows caused by any moons being out of the question.
Hypothetically, could ...
5
votes
3answers
180 views
Planet Tidally-Locked to its star having eclipse day/night cycles?
I'm thinking of a planet with one side too hot, and one too cold due to always facing its star. With the planet having a small ring, a "twilight zone" which may be habitable, I was wondering if a moon ...
3
votes
1answer
152 views
What are the effects of having a considerably longer day/night cycle? [closed]
If we had 84 hour days/84 hour nights, how would this effect the planets ecosystem? How much colder would nights be/hotter days would be? Can life as we know it even exist on a planet with such long ...
1
vote
2answers
96 views
Planets days and orbital period [closed]
Lets say there's planet that has an orbital period of 7 earth years and days that last about two hours. What created the orbital period and days of the planet to be different from earth and what ...
4
votes
2answers
109 views
Sun/stars orbit and climate
I understand this is a broad topic that to a degree was answered in previous questions.
What I'm trying to do is to create a plugin in Unreal 4. I'll start by creating a day/night system and a ...
1
vote
1answer
204 views
How much would we sleep if a day was 36 hours-long? How would eating habits and general work hours change? [duplicate]
What would happen to our sleep habits if a day was 36 hours-long instead of 24 hours?
Would we sleep twice a day or would be there one longer sleep?
How would the daily routine differ in terms of ...
42
votes
16answers
9k views
How do you tell time on a world with 9-year days?
On my world, the day lasts 9 years: 4.5 years of light, followed by 4.5 years of dark. The inhabitants of this world survive by migrating along the ring of dusk and dawn.
How do these people tell ...
8
votes
4answers
721 views
A world with only sunlight and a world with no sunlight (Fantasy)
I'm curious if it's possible for human life to survive in both of the following cases:
1. A fantasy world with only sunlight (no night).
2. A fantasy world with only night (no day).
Note: let's ...
6
votes
3answers
657 views
What would weather look like on a world with a 9-year day?
In a world I am building, the planet's days are longer than its years, with a single day taking 9 years. In all other ways, this planet is similar to Earth, but are there other differences I am ...
5
votes
2answers
659 views
I'm building a fantasy world like Earth but it has two moons adjacent to each other in a co-orbital configuration and need help
I am looking for help on the following:
Will that have any affect on the length of days and nights?
Would having two moons create a higher body of water on the planet due to increased tides? (i.e. ...
65
votes
14answers
11k views
How would people living in eternal day learn that stars exist?
In a world I am building, the day lasts longer than the year, 9 times longer in fact. The native people of this world have been forced to migrate around the world, both avoiding the scorching desert ...
6
votes
3answers
1k views
Season cycle that would occur on a habitable planet that orbits two suns?
If there's a habitable planet that orbits two suns like the above
orbital route, what would possibly occur on that planet?
Would it have two yearly seasonal cycle (compare to earth)?
Would it be ...
8
votes
5answers
569 views
Erratic Day and Night Periods
How is it possible to have a habitable planet where there are patterns of light and dark so erratic, it almost seems random (with a leaning towards greater periods of darkness than light)?
For ...
27
votes
14answers
4k views
How does a migratory species farm?
On a world I am building, the day and night cycle lasts 9 years, resulting in the majority of animals migrate across the planet. One of the problems that my sapient races (one on the out going night ...
8
votes
2answers
183 views
What are the effects of constant daylight on plantlife
On a world I am building, the day/night cycle last 9 years, meaning that there are interesting forms of life. Plants are the most interesting of these living things, which have many interesting forms ...
7
votes
7answers
1k views
How long could life survive The Night?
The Problem
In a world I am building, the days are 9 years long, this means 4 and half years of cold darkness following 4 and a half years of blistering daylight. I have asked questions on this Year ...
3
votes
4answers
221 views
What could cause a planets day to lengthen suddenly?
In my world, days last 9 years. The most realistic solution is for life to have evolved before the days were 9 years. My original idea was to have a passing body slow the day down, but the reality is ...
2
votes
3answers
675 views
Effect of 32 hour days?
What would the effect on humans be of a 32 hour day rather than 24 hours? It would be a pretty much even split of 16 hour days, 16 hour nights. The people would have previously been on a spaceship for ...
5
votes
2answers
358 views
Is a sudden slowing realistic?
In the world I am designing, the days last 9 years. The main problem I had was how life could have evolved on a world like this. An easy solution is to have the world start having 9 year days after ...
