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 We See a Lagrange Giant in the Sky?
The "Lagrange giant" in the title refers to a gas giant that orbits its star in the same distance as Earth does. The alternative description is "Trojan planet" or, to be most ...
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How bright is night on a moon orbiting a gas giant?
I have an Earth-like moon tidally-locked to a gas giant that is Saturn-like but without rings. On the side facing the gas giant, how much brighter would nights appear when the gas giant is fully ...
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What forms of life would be best adapted to living on a world with nine year long days?
Let us suppose that instead of the 24 hour cycle we currently enjoy on Earth between day and night, we instead lived on a planet with a day/night cycle that lasted a full 9 years. The noon of the day ...
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Life in the Temperate Zone of an Alternate Earth with an Axial Tilt of 42 Degrees--What Would the Seasons Be?
Suppose that in an alternate universe, Earth has an axial tilt not of 23.5 degrees, but 42. This means that from the equator, tropical climates with binary seasons (wet and dry) would persist from as ...
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Logistics of habitable moons orbiting a brown dwarf
Okay, so I've found some threads about the day/night cycle and seasons of habitable moons orbiting gas giants, but what if we replace the gas giant by a brown dwarf (i.e. the sub-stellar object class ...
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1answer
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What is the ideal day length for extreme weather?
This question is in reference to a previous question by TrEs-2b and SRM:
I want to create a planet with a significantly longer day than Earth's. However, I was only able to find a question about a ...
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2answers
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How could a planet with a long day-night cycle naturally regulate its temperatures to allow life?
So, my planet has (around) an Earth year long day-night cycle. How could its temperatures not reach extremes that would disallow life? Assume that everything is Earth like except for multiple moons (...
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Temperatures of a planet with 1,000 Earth day long day-night cycle
My planet is Earth like in size (I can change it, if needed), however its day-night cycle is somewhere around 1,000 Earth days long. How hot would day get, and how cold would night get? Is it possible ...
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How Bright Would the Sky on This Alternate Earth Be? The Sequel to “The 372-Day Calendar”
Long ago, I asked how far Earth would orbit the sun if one year lasts 372 days instead of 365 and how much it'd affect the overall brightness. What I got was that Earth with a 372-day calendar would ...
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How Bright Would Super Saturn's Rings Be in Our Sky?
It's not that long ago that we have found the "exoplanet" J1407b, notable for having a ring system 200 times the size of Saturn's. I airquote that term because, at a mass ten to forty times ...
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Animals, plants, and sleep cycles on a moon with a very long day-night cycle [closed]
Let’s say that this moon is about the size of Earth. Let’s say that our moon has a very long day-night cycle; about an Earth year. During night, would all plantlife die because of the lack of light? ...
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Could a planet with many moons see a different moon each night?
This is just an idea I have been toying with.
Taking Earth as an example with 7 days in a week, my idea would that there would be 7 moons in orbit around the planet. They would not necessarily share ...
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How long would daytime and nightime be on a planet with a 26 hours rotational period? [duplicate]
The basics about the planet in question: As the second planet in the star system, it's somewhat warmer than Earth is. The rotational period is 26 hours and the orbital period is 312 days which ...
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Would this sort of climate be possible on a tidally locked moon? [duplicate]
In the current fantasy novel I'm working on, I decided that I wanted to have a part of the planet where it was always daylight. After doing some research I learnt about the concept of tidally locked ...
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What would days and nights look like on this cylindrical world?
This is yet another "literal worldbuilding" question, as in, building worlds. Inspired, in part, by this question.
What if this world is a very long (effectively infinite) hollow cylindrical cavity ...
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I want ten Earth-years long day on my planet. Can I have it?
I need ten Earth years long day-night cycle on my planet.
Hemera is a world I am creating as a setting for my story. Name comes from Greek deity - personification of Day. Needs of storytelling have ...
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Frequent Solar Eclipse Cycle and Its Effects [closed]
I’m trying to imagine a sci-fi/fantasy world in which a solar eclipse occurs roughly once every 3 or 4 days. The exact frequency can be arbitrary and varied, but it does need to occur often. I would ...
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How do I calculate the hours of daylight on an arbitrary planet for a given day at a given latitude?
I want to be able to graph the change in daylight hours across the year for a given latitude, to get an idea of what kind of cycle in available daylight people at that latitude would live through and ...
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1answer
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Under which circumstances could a planet have two visible suns?
In the story I'm making, it is important that there are two suns in the sky, going at different rythms (maybe the planet orbits one of them each year, and the other each four years, for instance), and ...
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3answers
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Could a planet have a week long day and a week long night depending on the season?
Essentially I'm looking for a plausible way that a planet could have odd, extreme seasons. Basically I'm wondering how (or if) a planet could work that has a week long day during the summer and a week ...
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2answers
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Alien Speices with extreme day/night cycle
I am creating this alien species and they live on three separate worlds blah blah, that doesn't matter right now.
This one planet I have has a fairly long day-night cycle (I haven't decided on how ...
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2answers
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Creating “Sunfall” on the moon of a gas giant
I'm attempting to figure out the orbital physics of a system that has a habitable body that has intense periods of waxing and waning sunlight. I've come to the assumption that the best body for this ...
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Realistic ways a Planet or Large Moon could have Variable Day/Night periods
Hello I imagine this is a pretty straightforward question, perhaps already covered in another post, but I wanted to get extra perspectives and options for achieving this type of planet or moon. So ...
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1answer
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Days and Seasons via Daily Eclipses in a Flat World
While working on the cosmos of a flat world, I came upon the idea of using a dim sum rotating about an axis through the central pole (as described here) in order to accomplish days and seasons. The ...
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2answers
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Sleeping in a world without night
I'm working on a game world where light (Lux) gives literal definition to all matter. Anything in complete shadow (Umbra) is without definition and completely amorphous.
At the center of the world, ...
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Always night in one hemisphere. Is it viable?
I am building a world where one side of the planet has normal progression of day and night whereas in the other hemisphere it is always night.
At first I had no idea how this could be possible in the ...
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2answers
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Nocturnal Photosynthesis
It's a basic fact that most plants need sunlight to generate growth. Sure, they also need water and nutrients, but their reliance on sunlight is the one sole thing that separates them from animals.
...
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3answers
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How could I scientifically explain a world with day/night cycle only on the equator?
I'd like to build a world that has one pole where it's constantly day (all year long) and the weather is very hot, and one where it's constantly night (all year long) and the weather is freezing.
I'd ...
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7answers
885 views
A planet of ice and fire
I had an idea for a planet which has very hot days, roughly 40 degrees C on average, and very cold nights, average -5 degrees. These figures are subject to change. Of course, there are places which ...
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4answers
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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,...
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1answer
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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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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 ...
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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
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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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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 ...
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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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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 ...
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2answers
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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 ...
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4answers
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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 ...
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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 ...
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3answers
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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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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 ...
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5answers
247 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 ...
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3answers
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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 ...
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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
225 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, ...
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1answer
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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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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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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-...
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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 ...
