Earth Has Four Seasons Lasting Years. Is This Too Much?

In this alternate Earth, the axial tilt is still leaning to the extent of the temperate and polar zones having four seasons--spring, summer, autumn and winter. The one key difference is that each season lasts, not for three months, but for three years. This is because it orbits a trinary system--a binary of G-type main-sequence stars orbited by a third, solitary G-type main-sequence star--which widens the habitable zone (the point where liquid water can form) but pushes it a lot further. And as any astronomer knows, the farther a planet is from its parent star(s), the slower the revolution, and therefore the longer the year. So here, we have an alternate Earth with a 12-year revolution. I've been told elsewhere that, with the right amount of starlight, a planet with a longer revolution would result in greater seasonal extremes, which makes sense.

So the question is--if each of Earth's four seasons lasts three years long, would Earth still hold the great diversity of habitats, or would we be looking at some overgrown desert like Tatooine or Arrakis?

posted over 4 years ago

JohnWDailey‭

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