[GURPS Space(/Fantasy??)] Consequences of a Unique Planetary Rotation

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

That 200 degrees (which better be Fahrenheit) is a huge swing and obviously means that no more than one side of the planet has even a vague possibility of liquid water. If it runs 220 F on the day side and 20 F on the night side _neither_ side could have liquid water.

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Except of course those temperatures would only be at the west and east poles. It's like expecting to find liquid water in Antartica. That you can't doesn't mean you can't find it anywhere in the southern hemisphere. And of course there's the cooling effect of evaporation. Assuming the east pole isn't above sea level then you will have water there. It will just be boiling water which will flow outward with the air and rain back down as things cool down, while water continuously flows in to replace the boil-off. And below the surface things will cool down. It'll only be the top layer which boils. And of course the thicker the atmosphere, is, the less the temperature variance is.

[vicky_molokh]

I wonder if all this will cause changes in the magnetic field, ozone layer, and other factors which will have interaction with issues of radiation.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Except of course those temperatures would only be at the west and east poles.

The post I took those numbers from said "average" and not extreme. The day pole and the night pole (east and west is not quite right)would be more extreme.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Molokh

I wonder if all this will cause changes in the magnetic field, ozone layer, and other factors which will have interaction with issues of radiation.

Under our current understanding, no rotation means (mostly) no magnetic field. Not disastrous to surface life (if the temperatures permit) but there might be issues about the solar wind eroding the atmosphere at its upper limits.

If you have O2 in your atmosphere and the sun puts out UV, then the ozone is self-perpetuating.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

The post I took those numbers from said "average" and not extreme. The day pole and the night pole (east and west is not quite right)would be more extreme.

A quick google turns up this page and its' little chart right at the bottom of te page.

http://www.planetary.org/explore/top...ml#temperature

It says Earth rates an average 75 F on the day side and 40 on the night.

If you added 100 to the dayside number and subtracted 100 from the night you get 175 and -60.

Those are still averages too of course. The day pole will be hotter and the night pole colder. You'll be lucky to find dayside spots that are as cool as Death Valley.

It just looks very very bad to me. It might not go runaway greenhouse (_might_ not but it probalby could). i'm not sure you can count on oceans to have a cooling effect. It's quite likely that oceans never form in the first place.

The photosynthesis thing still looks like a no-go to me too.

Life in the form of bacteria in the rock many feet below the surface might be possible but that doesn't really help your global ecosystem. It won't produce any oxygen, mostly just more CO2 which you don't really need.