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IANAP, but it seems pretty unlikely that this would be possible, at least in any way short of living in underground bunkers. I would expect that either the atm
by dstorrs 16y ago
IANAP, but it seems pretty unlikely that this would be possible, at least in any way short of living in underground bunkers. I would expect that either the atmosphere would boil off from the hot side (if there wasn't enough gravity to retain it), or the gravity COULD retain it in which case you would get constant world-wide hurricane force winds.
- hugh3 16y agoIAAP but I'm not so sure what would happen, it's nonobvious. I did find this short article, based on a more thorough research paper from 1997, suggesting it might be possible though: http://www.treitel.org/Richard/rass/tidelock01.txt http://www.treitel.org/Richard/rass/tidelock01.txt In short, not only can such a tide-locked planet maintain an atmosphere, but it might even be habitable over much of its surface, with an active water cycle and maybe even a near-breathable surface.
- dstorrs 16y agoThat is really cool. Thank you for the correction, and for the article.
- Retric 16y agoA tidally locked planet with a significant atmosphere would not heat up as much as you might think. The atmosphere would transmit most of that energy around the planet fairly quickly. Consider the Earth has a circumference of 24,859 miles and the jet stream has been measured at around 247 MPH at those speeds air would circle the earth once every 4 days. However, far more important is radent heating increases as the fourth power of temperature which is why the moon never goes over 123°C even after 24/7 sunlight for several days at a time.