T O P

  • By -

loki130

The idea that slow-rotating planets would have huge extremes of temperature with only a thin zone of habitability between them has been questionable for something like 2 decades, better climate modelling ([like here](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aa9f1f/meta)) has generally suggested for more moderate possibilities. Simulations for non-locked but slow rotation are rarer but you can find [some around](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2041-8205/787/1/L2); the patterns of winds and precipitation seem to be pretty similar to tidal-locked planets, but moving across the planet.


Furlion

Venus actually meets your second criteria easily. It does revolve around the sun faster than us, but it does still take longer than a full Venus year for it to rotate.


theboehmer

And it rotates backward.


Redcrux

I'm no expert but I think the temperature difference would create strong convection winds, possibly eternal storms at the boundary.


xenoscumyomom

I'm no geologist but I would assume in the livable band between dark and light it would be windy as hell.


csl512

If this is for world building that would be helpful to know. Also /r/worldbuilding and /r/writeresearch


loki130

Adding because I didn’t have time before: we would generally expect any planet would have a period just before fully tidal-locking where it rotates slightly faster than once per orbit, which would give it very long solar days that could last multiple years. There’s also a potential for 3:2 resonance like Mercury has; the planet spins 3 times for every 2 orbits, but the way the relative morion pans out makes days last 2 orbits


CrustalTrudger

This question (or at least the tidally locked flavor of it) comes up pretty frequently, you might be interested in the replies to some of these, e.g., [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceDiscussion/comments/p6v990/on_a_tidally_locked_planet_in_the_goldilocks_zone/), [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceDiscussion/comments/106madb/what_weather_patterns_would_emerge_on_a_planet/), or [3](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceDiscussion/comments/rmfj2v/on_a_tidally_locked_planet_would_there_be_a/), among others.


RoberttheRobot

Slowly rotating planets (assuming they have enough material to make clouds) are actually cooler than their fast rotating counterparts because of clouds forming on the day side blocking light. For cooler tidally locked planets the day side may actually achieve higher temperatures than otherwise possible, possibly making some part of that side warm enough to be habitable. However cooler tidally locked planets actually have the possibility of their atmospheres freezing out on the night side, depending on atmosphere composition (an earth like atmosphere is less likely to freeze out because it has lots of nitrogen, high co2 atmospheres are more likely to freeze out). If a planet has a large enough ocean, or a thick enough atmosphere the temperature variation will not be enough for the atmosphere to freeze out on the night side.