Quote:
Originally Posted by LazarusDarkeyes
Given: Through ANY extra-ordinary means (magical, divine, whatever), a planet rotates so that it has the exact same hemisphere of the planet always facing its sun. The axis of the planet's rotation is exactly perpendicular to the plane of its revolution around the sun. The pleny is otherwise Earth is all other respects (days per revolution, size, mass, distance from sun, 1 satellite orbiting which is the size of the moon, etc.).
Question: What would be the effects of this? Would one side of the planet be a desert, the other side a frozen wasteland, and there might be a ring around the planet which is intermediate and may actualyl be habitable?
Affect on oceans? Polar icecaps? Flora/Fauna? Atmosphere? Other?
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In other words, a tidally locked planet.
Recent scientific studies suggest that, even when a world is tidally locked, heat would be transferred from the Day side to the Night side by oceans and the atmosphere.
GURPS Space actually covers such worlds. Using the rules in that book, the average temperature difference between Day and Night sides will be about 200 degrees. So...just a guess here...deserts (with forests in coastal regions) on the Day side and arctic wilderness on the Night side seems likely.