Moonlight and the night side of a tidally locked planet
Follow up to my previous question, after botched registration.
We have an Earth-like planet tidally locked to a star similar to Sirius A. The star does not belong to a binary system. The planet itself possesses an atmosphere, volcanic activity and large water bodies. As pointed out in this Physics SE, seasons would be the result of orbital eccentricity. A natural satellite orbits the planet.
The day side of the planet is inhospitable due to the heat from constant sunlight and most of it's water is likely underground. The twilight zone is also inhospitable due to strong winds created by the differences in temperature between the day and night sides. The night side is illuminated by the natural satellite, which has the same angular diameter as our Moon and an orbital period of about 30 hours.
Given that Sirius is 25.4 times more luminous than the Sun, would photosynthesis, and thus plant life, be viable in the night side of the planet? Would the plants need a different pigment, such as retinal rather than chlorophyl?
Thanks for JDÅ‚ugosz and Youstay Igo for their answers to the previous question.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/25506. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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