Questions tagged [tidally-locked]

Identifies questions about tidally-locked celestial objects, such as a moon orbiting a planet or a planet orbiting a star. A tidally-locked celestial object rotates once per orbit, always keeping the same face toward the object that holds the lock. Questions may address the physics and consequences of a tidal lock and are not limited to individual dominant-subservient relationships.

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Can a tidally locked planet with two counter-orbit moons exist for at least 100,000 years?

I believe it is true (correct me if I'm wrong) that a planet with a significant moon such as ours cannot be tidally locked. The orbit of the moon would continue the rotation of the planet and must, ...
JBH's user avatar
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3 votes
3 answers
123 views

Would the substellar point on a tidally locked planet with a large continent over that point and oceans around the edges be covered in rainforest?

I have been working on a tidally locked planet for some time now. During this time I have worked under the assumption that the substellar point would be arid because of the constant bombardment of ...
treeg886's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
329 views

A 1:1 tidally locked world begins to spin. What sorts of non-solar natural disasters occur?

As stated a tidally locked world that has complete 1:1 begins to spin slowly. It starts slowly, a 2:1 ratio that steadily ramps up over the course of a month to one rotation every month, which would ...
Quinn's user avatar
  • 1,136
2 votes
1 answer
142 views

Clouds on a tidally-locked planet

I have an ocean world in my science-fiction universe which is tidally-locked to its star. The planet is a tidally-detached moon from one the gas giants in the outer system, and orbits a red dwarf star....
user98816's user avatar
  • 8,329
2 votes
1 answer
336 views

Geology and tidal forces on moon with Earth-life surface, but very unstable underground

I am writing a story set on a mining colony moon with some very odd geological conditions, and while this idea is admittedly likely impossible to fully make geologically plausible but I wanted to see ...
TheyMightBeGiantSquids's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
107 views

Day/night cycle on an S-type planet

[Answered myself below] I've seen similar questions have been asked before, but the details are slightly different. Say you have a tidally-locked, roughly Earth-mass rocky planet in the habitable zone ...
DMacc1917's user avatar
  • 946
2 votes
5 answers
359 views

Could humans possibly survive on a shallow ocean planet with scarce, but large, volcanic islands?

[edited after feedback in comments] I've had an idea for a story that takes place on a planet that is primarily shallow oceans (average depth of no more than 100m or so, max depth of no more than ...
DMacc1917's user avatar
  • 946
2 votes
2 answers
115 views

How could a planet stop spinning?

Contextualizing, I'm writing a book where the planet is tidally locked with their star and i want to have a reason for that. Whatever cause the planet to stop rotating have to also cause a mass ...
Storm's user avatar
  • 49
2 votes
2 answers
229 views

Can planet with three moons, have one tidal-locked both on rotation and revolution?

I'm a new D&D 5E Dungeon Master and I've found out recently about tidal locking. For the first RPG setting I'm preparing with a friend, the planet the players will be on has 3 moons. Me and ...
Zorgatone's user avatar
  • 123
4 votes
1 answer
138 views

How thick should my atmosphere be?

I recently asked a question conserning a planet I am designing: Can my planet maintain a magnetic field after being tidally locked?. Based on these answers I determined that my planet may be capable ...
ΓΙΑΝΝΗΣ ΜΙΧΑΗΛΙΔΗΣ's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
185 views

Can my planet maintain a magnetic field after being tidally locked?

I'm designing an Earth-like planet that has a mass of 1.9 that of Earths' and a gravity of 1.44 g. It is orbiting around a k7v orange dwarf star at a distance of 0.47 AU and with an orbital period of ...
ΓΙΑΝΝΗΣ ΜΙΧΑΗΛΙΔΗΣ's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
169 views

Tides on a tidally locked planet

Picture the classic Earth-like tidally locked planet, with a frozen dark side, a boiling stormy light side, and a thin strip of habitable land along the terminator. The planet is similar in size and ...
MoholyNagy's user avatar
  • 1,097
2 votes
5 answers
179 views

Can my planet carry heat effectively from one side to another?

I'm designing an Earth-like planet orbiting around a K5V star in the habitable zone (the planet is at a distance of 0.41 AU). The star has a mass of 0.70 M and a surface temperature of 4,526 Kelvin. ...
ΓΙΑΝΝΗΣ ΜΙΧΑΗΛΙΔΗΣ's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
134 views

How fast should my planet spin in order to be tidally locked?

I am designing a habitable planet with a diameter of 12.879 km. orbiting around a K5V orange dwarf star. Due to a number of planetery collisions during its creation, the planet ended up being tidally ...
ΓΙΑΝΝΗΣ ΜΙΧΑΗΛΙΔΗΣ's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
249 views

How fast can a tidally locked planet be sped up without causing noticeable discomfort?

This question is about an Earth-like planet that doesn't rotate around its own axis. Normally the sun and moon rotate around the planet, providing a day/night cycle, but this has stopped for reasons. ...
vinzzz001's user avatar
  • 723
4 votes
1 answer
202 views

Can large stars have tidally locked worlds in their habitable zones?

I think the vast majority of space-enthusiasts has heard at some point that in order for a planet orbiting a red dwarf star to be habitable, it needs to be close enough to its parent star to sopport ...
ΓΙΑΝΝΗΣ ΜΙΧΑΗΛΙΔΗΣ's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
317 views

Weather in a tidally locked planet's crepuscular zone

I'm currently designing a world for a project I am working on. It's supposed to be a grounded and comparatively realistic setting. The setting is a tidally locked planet in its star's habitable zone, ...
Yxylion's user avatar
  • 41
1 vote
3 answers
223 views

On a Tidally-Locked Toroidal Planet

I am developing a world, and I need to see what exactly the surface would be like. It is tidally locked at 1AU away from the parent star. It is tidally-locked via being a Torus with a major radius of ...
Zoey's user avatar
  • 756
4 votes
4 answers
272 views

Can one half of a planet be desolate, while the other half is lush vegetation?

Is it possible for half a planet to be cold, dark and lifeless while the other is a lush jungle? Can a planet be tidally locked to a sun where the jungle surface is always facing the light, and the ...
RavenclawJedi's user avatar
18 votes
7 answers
5k views

How would sleep work on a tidally locked planet?

For this scenario, imagine your classical habitable tidally locked planet: hot desert on one side, frigid wasteland on the other, and the only thing that is good is in the twilight zone. Now, assume ...
faddllz's user avatar
  • 1,782
4 votes
3 answers
148 views

A tidally-locked planet's dry ice caps

An exactly Earth-sized tidally-locked planet orbits its host star, which is functionally identical to our Sun, at an average distance of 1 AU, the same distance that the Earth orbits the Sun. The ...
KEY_ABRADE's user avatar
  • 11.3k
1 vote
1 answer
176 views

Two celestial bodies tidal locked - not with the sun

I tried to do my homework and actually thanks to this question and answer, I found myself to this site. But I just found more questions :) Basically the setting would be close to what Earth - Moon is, ...
Marbyg's user avatar
  • 13
2 votes
2 answers
92 views

tidally locked Tropical Europa

Suppose there is a heat source at Lagrange Point 1 for Europa-Jupiter sends as much energy to Europa as the Sun does to Earth. Assuming that this "artificial star" is completely sustainable ...
Bowman's user avatar
  • 619
2 votes
5 answers
335 views

Would Moons of a gas giant appear to phase when looking at them from another, tidally-locked Moon?

I'm designing a fantasy world on a tidally-locked moon of a gas giant. Because it's primarily a medieval fantasy set on the outward-facing side of the home moon, I'd like to keep units of time similar ...
xeg0's user avatar
  • 23
5 votes
4 answers
344 views

A Planet Approaching being a tidally locked planet

I am world-building an adventure for the Alien RPG. As a world approaches being tidally locked, and by this, I mean in the process of slowing down, but not stable. In such a world that no longer ...
RixRam's user avatar
  • 53
2 votes
1 answer
105 views

What are the conditions required for a tidally locked world to be in orbital resonance?

I have been looking into the orbital mechanics of tidally locked worlds lately and saw some interesting things. Namely that would-be tidally locked moons/planets can have rotation periods that differ ...
JuimyTheHyena's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
183 views

Could a "gentle" collision of a planet into another cause tidal locking and still support life later on? What other side effects could appear?

After a few years I seem to have come back to the topic of the possibility of tidal locking on a planet with life. I love speculative biology and designing these sorts of scenarios but tidal locking I'...
SentiCarter's user avatar
  • 1,596
5 votes
1 answer
112 views

How close to a star can be a tidally locked planet so to have moderate temperature on its dark side? [closed]

So, imagine an atmosphere-less planet, tidally locked to a sun-like star. How close to the star can the planet be before its dark side becomes too hot? I imagine that at some point the rocks on its ...
Anixx's user avatar
  • 4,873
2 votes
3 answers
252 views

What if a moon orbits far away and extremely fast?

Imagine an Earth-massed moon orbiting around a Saturn-massed planet in a period of 28 days. This calculation tells me that is possible if the moon is 1.8 million km away. If so, the moon must be ...
B. T. Newberg's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
417 views

Ring of storms around a planet

I'm looking to see if it's possible to create a planet which has constant, violent storms occurring in a ring around the planet. There's been plenty of questions on here about weather on tidally ...
Brad0440's user avatar
  • 450
1 vote
2 answers
149 views

Is an atmosphere that it's not breathable but won't damage the skin on a tidally locked Ocean planet plausible? [closed]

In my story, people are trying to colonize an Ocean planet that orbit Ultra-cool red dwarf. (Based on this Wikipedia article a planet can retain Water in this type of stars with a mass around 0.08-0....
Khalid's user avatar
  • 543
4 votes
1 answer
213 views

Air trapping polar vortexes on tidally locked planets?

There's a tidally locked planet with native life or not, but with an atmosphere that could allow a decent degree of heat transfer between hot and cold side and a rather broad, hospitable region near ...
mart's user avatar
  • 3,487
1 vote
2 answers
273 views

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 ...
Habiba Dokubo-Asari's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
210 views

Can a planet be in spin-orbit resonance with its parent and in resonance with other planets at the same time?

Mercury is tidally locked in a 3:2 spin-orbit resonance with the sun. Other resonances like 1:1, 2:1, 5:2 can occur as well. Many objects, like the moons of Jupiter, are locked in mean-motion ...
TheDyingOfLight's user avatar
9 votes
4 answers
3k views

Do seasons occur on a tidally-locked planet?

I have done some research and so much contradict one another or I simply fail to understand. Do seasons occur on a tidally locked planet that isn't tilted on its axis?
Mister Onion's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
118 views

How can humans actively tidal lock a planet? [duplicate]

How can humans (like that that are on Earth now) stop planet from rotating (tidaly lock it, to make an eyeball planet)? Is that technologicaly possible? Can moons of that planet help them? They want ...
galaxy001's user avatar
  • 217
12 votes
1 answer
506 views

What might be the climate inside a "sky abyss" on a tidally locked planet?

Ok, assuming a planet that's tidally locked to its sun, but is otherwise roughly similar to earth in gravity and atmosphere. Classic tidally locked planet: one side is covered in ice, the other is a ...
Monsieur Nauru's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
181 views

Feasibilty of binary planet having life

So far I've designed two planets, and would like for them to orbit each other at a distance of roughly 1.25 million km (both planets would easily stay in the habitable zone), the smaller being tidally ...
Rebel110's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
504 views

What kind of climates and biomes would exist on the continents a tidally locked ocean world?

Please note: I am asking about planet orbiting a star, not a moon orbiting a planet. So I’ve been trying to get this planet down for a long while now but there are still so many pieces of the puzzle ...
SentiCarter's user avatar
  • 1,596
3 votes
1 answer
465 views

Binary planets that are not tidally locked

The story takes place in Alpha Centauri, with this binary orbiting just over 1 AU from Rigil Kentaurus. The star system will tightly packed, but following the 10 Mutual Hill Radii separation setup. ...
Markitect's user avatar
  • 1,011
85 votes
8 answers
8k views

Tree Shape on a Tidally Locked World

I'm designing a tidally locked world around a red dwarf star. The habitable ring is an Earth analogue. The atmosphere and gravity are similar to Earth's, and we're going to pretend the wind is ...
Zxyrra's user avatar
  • 20.5k
8 votes
2 answers
841 views

Could a planet, tidally locked with the sun, have molten rock on the side that faces the sun?

I am designing a solar system, with the first planet located very close to the parent star. This planet has become tidally locked to the star. Is it possible to have a molten lava ocean on the side ...
VenusUberAlles's user avatar