Questions tagged [day-night]
For questions regarding the day-night cycle of a day on a world. Usually regarding the dark-light cycle.
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Could a Stanford torus rotate on an additional axis to give it a diurnal cycle?
Suppose you have a regular old Stanford torus space station with a 'glass ceiling' rotating at 1.3 RPM. Put it in orbit around a star such that its axis of rotation intersects the star (in other words,...
2
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1answer
88 views
Seasons & days with steep axial tilt?
Given tilt of about 90deg (like Uranus), with day & year like Venus (day longer than year), orbiting a purple (brown) dwarf (not tidal locked). I'm having trouble getting "seasons" & day ...
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6answers
221 views
Would separating people into 2 groups help the economy in any way?
Would splitting humans into two groups, those that work and live during the night, and those that work and live during the day, help the economy in any way?
What would be other considerations of ...
5
votes
3answers
188 views
What is the optimal sleep scheduling strategies for a 24h sleep cycle on a 48h day planet?
I have a planet with days that is exactly two times longer than in real world. I'm trying to find out the best time to sleep if people still need as much sleep as they do even if they are on a planet ...
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2answers
107 views
Is it safe to have an earth-like temperature for a 48-hour day-night cycle on a big planet?
I want this planet to be very earth-like on all aspects except for its size and the day-night cycle. The circumference is three times greater than the earth's circumference. The day-night cycle lasts ...
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4answers
1k views
Ways other than sleep to restore cells/neurons
So I have a planet with multiple species on it. My planet is tidally locked. I know it is generally thought a tidally locked planet couldn't harbor life because of the extreme temperatures, but my ...
8
votes
1answer
572 views
If the Earth was part of an ultimate solar system, what would the sky look like?
I once show a picture depicticting the idea of an ultimate solar system:
Image Copyright Sean Raymond
In this solar system there are 8 planetary orbits, each containing 52 equal-mass, evenly-spaced ...
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5answers
329 views
What are the day and night fluctuations for a moon orbiting a planet the size of Jupiter?
In a nutshell, I'm trying to build a world with erratic day/night cycles.
To get the erratic days, I'm working with a habitable moon. It takes 3 full earth days (72 hours) for the habitable moon to ...
5
votes
2answers
148 views
2 weeks day, 2 weeks night, how would the sleeping pattern of the planet's dominant species work with a 28 'day' Day?
Okay, so I have this binary planet system. The main planet a bit bigger than earth with a size appropriate moon-planet. Both are habitable and with a humanoid species that evolved there.
But, I know ...
2
votes
4answers
153 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
126 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 ...
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8answers
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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
261 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 ...
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votes
6answers
252 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
209 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
87 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
375 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
132 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
120 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
113 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 "...
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1answer
305 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 ...
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votes
7answers
821 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
218 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 ...
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vote
0answers
85 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 ...
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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
148 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
4answers
340 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
105 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
480 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 ...
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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 ...
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votes
2answers
224 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....
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vote
7answers
288 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 ...
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votes
4answers
834 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
305 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
322 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 ...
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votes
11answers
607 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
187 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
276 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
304 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
792 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
209 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
169 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 ...
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vote
2answers
102 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 ...
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votes
2answers
110 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 ...
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vote
1answer
212 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 ...
43
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
849 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
686 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
795 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. ...
