Timeline for Are there any known planets whose axis is oriented such that one pole always faces its star?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 20, 2016 at 14:09 | comment | added | AnoE | Yes, it means that two rotations about axis A and B are in fact just one rotation about C. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotation_matrix#Multiplication | |
| Sep 20, 2016 at 9:59 | comment | added | RemcoGerlich | @JamesK: doesn't it mean two rotations are really just a single rotation over another axis, meaning that it is in fact possible? | |
| Sep 19, 2016 at 20:21 | comment | added | Cody | I'm pretty sure you can have 2 axis of rotation in a 4 dimensional space, but Euler's rotation theorem limits us to 1 in 3 dimensions. Good luck writing a SciFi story with that and being able to have it make sense to the average reader. | |
| Sep 19, 2016 at 19:27 | comment | added | Carl Witthoft | @JamesK like I said, SciFi + "willing suspension of disbelief" --> the Ringworld Engineers put some rotational stabilizers into this planet :-) | |
| Sep 19, 2016 at 19:17 | comment | added | James K | @CarlWitthoft See Euler's rotation theorem, which roughly means you can't have two axes of rotation. | |
| Sep 19, 2016 at 19:02 | comment | added | Carl Witthoft | I think it might be interesting -- for a SciFi story -- to posit a planet which both rotates about one pole and rotates about a second, perpendicular, pole to achieve what the OP's asking about. Gotta be more likely to exist than DiscWorld! | |
| Sep 19, 2016 at 18:03 | history | answered | Cody | CC BY-SA 3.0 |