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Q&A

Could a habitable tidally locked planet have a day and night cycle caused by the eccentricity of its orbit?

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I'm trying to think of ways that a habitable tidally locked planet could have something that resembles a day/night cycle. Shadows caused by any moons being out of the question.

Hypothetically, could the planet have an orbit so eccentric and fast that its days occur when it's approaching its perihelion and nights when it is approaching its aphelion.

So let's say the planet orbits the star in 24 hours and has a 24 hour long year. At one point the planet is so close to the star that the sun is bright in the sky and the star facing side experiences a beautiful day. Then, as the "year" reaches its close, the planet orbits farther and farther away until the sun is so dim there is a universal night.

Is an orbit like this feasible? I want the planet to still be habitable. Could a planet ever orbit this quickly, even if the star is small? Is there a way this could occur without causing any deadly temperature extremes? Frankly, is this a realistic possibility?

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This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/81420. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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