Questions tagged [tidal-locking]
Questions regarding a phenomenon when an object has an orbital period that is equal to its rotational period due to gravitational tidal forces.
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On a theoretical young tidally locked planet and its relationship with temperature
I have a question regarding tidally locked planets, regarding the length it takes to reach a certain temperature.
How would one calculate the estimated temperature after a certain amount of time being ...
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Under which conditions could a planet's massive moon's orbit get closer to the planet?
The recent question How do we know the Moon was much closer than it is now? has piqued my interest. The answers are numerous and clear. But I started to wonder. The question includes the following ...
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Will the Earth tidally lock to the Moon (ignoring Sun's expansion)
At some point, won't the tidal forces from the Moon be less than the ones from the Sun? Would that mean that the Moon stops moving away, or would the process still continue. Would the Earth start ...
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What does the rate the Moon moves away from Earth depend on?
Is it based on the distance between the Earth and Moon? Would that make the Moon move away faster or slower as time goes on?
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Would the Earth and Moon still have tides after the Earth tidally locks to the Moon?
Ignore the Sun's expansion.
From my understanding, tidal locking happens from torque as a result of tidal bulges being offset from the line between the two planets. So when the Earth and Moon tidally ...
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Is this definition of tidal locking really satisfying?
We always are hearing this: "If a moon has equal rotational and orbital periods it's tidally locked to its host planet and always one side of it will face to the planet."
But what if, for ...
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Eyeball planets experiencing "catastrophic" flips
This Youtube video by Anton Petrov shows research1 claiming that tidally-locked planets orbiting the same star in tight orbits may interfere with one another and one planet may cause the other to &...
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"Tidally locked" Oort Cloud object
Is the Oort cloud spherical enough and are there enough objects in it that it is likely there is at least one in there that it has shown the same face to the sun for billions of years and will ...
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Is there tidal locking between Saturn and each of its moons?
From Earth we can see only the near side of the Moon, because of tidal locking.
Is there tidal locking for every moon of other planets in the solar system, too? E.G. for Saturn?
Here is Wikipedia ...
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How would ocean tides work on a tidally-locked planet?
Since the tidal bulge is always in the same place, how would that affect ocean tides? Would they change throughout an elliptical orbit, due to changing distance from the star? How exactly would they ...
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If a planet orbits an M-Star in an S-type orbit around a G star, what is the minimum distance from the G star that it could remain tidally locked?
I'm wondering how close a planet-M-dwarf system could orbit a G star and have the planet remain tidally locked to the M star. I'm curious, because I'm designing a habitable planet, and I want the ...
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M Dwarf radiation and habitability at the terminator of a tidally-locked planet?
I know that M Dwarf stars emit intense solar flares, which is thought to pose a potential problem for the emergence of life on planets that orbit them. But I was wondering if the life that might exist ...
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Tidal locking of Moon [duplicate]
Since our Moon is tidally locked with earth, we always see only one side of the Moon. In such a case, how and when did mankind first realize that the Moon is also revolving around its own axis? or for ...
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Why is the moon tidally locked with the earth?
Why the moon is tidally locked with the earth? What is the reason for the tidal locking of the moon with the earth? What causes tidal locking?
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Can a celestial body be tidally locked to multiple other bodies at the same time?
Could a planet be tidally locked to both the star it is orbiting and a moon orbiting the planet at the same time? I feel like it wouldn't be possible, because I think it would cause the moon to crash ...
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Effects of a binary star system on a tidally locked planet
This is basically a world-building question, but I'm looking for a scientifically based answer, so I'm posting here.
Imagine a fairly earth-like planet- Lets call it Planet X. Planet X has an earth-...
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Are there tidally locked bodies where the "far side" is denser?
It makes sense that tidal forces lead to tidal locking. Celestial bodies have varying densities and shapes, so some orientations have a lower gravitational potential, and eventually the tendency will ...
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If the Earth became tidally locked with the moon, would that last forever?
If the Earth and the moon became tidally locked, would this last theoretically forever (assuming no external gravitational force modifies their orbits, for example, ignoring the effects caused by the ...
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Is an extreme precession on a tidally locked planet possible?
Let's assume an exoplanet orbits a red dwarf star closely enough that is tidally locked to it. Is it possible for the planet to have a significant axial precession? If not naturally, is it possible to ...
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Could a tidally locked large moon prevent a close-orbiting planet from getting tidally locked to its star?
A planet can get tidally locked to its moon, like Pluto and Charon, or like Earth someday and Luna. A planet can get tidally locked to its sun - close orbiting exoplanets are assumed to be tidally ...
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Why circularization of an orbit has longer time scale than tidal locking?
I'm trying to understand the basic physics of orbital evolution. I know that in a two-body system (a planet orbiting a sun for example), eccentric orbits become circular, and the spin of the planet ...
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How can Io be tidally heated while it is in tidal lock?
According to its Wikipedia page:
Rotation period: synchronous
Eccentricity: 0.0041
But also
...extreme geologic activity is the result of tidal heating...
How is it possible? It should not be ...
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Will Mercury ever become locked to the Sun?
The Mercury year is between 1 and 2 days. Has it ever been greater, and will it eventually become "tidally locked" with the Sun?
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Is it possible to have a positive rational number of months (more than 1) in a year?
It is possible for a planet to have orbital resonance with a sun (e.g. Mercury has a 3:2 spin resonance with the sun). It is also possible for a moon to have orbital resonance with a planet (e.g. our ...
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Would tidally locked Earth-like exoplanets necessarily have hot pole/cold pole atmospheric circulation?
A tidally locked planet orbiting a red dwarf star in its habitable zone would have a rotational period equal to its orbital period, on the order of days or weeks.
Given a thick enough atmosphere ...
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Jupiter's effect on a hypothetical "warm" Europa's water
Imagine for a moment that Europa is not frozen solid (at least on the surface).
Would the fact that it is tidally locked to Jupiter mean that the water would be stagnate? So there would be no tides ...
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Moon's rotation and revolution
Since the moon's period of rotation around its own axis, and that of its revolution around earth is (almost) same, we always see only one side of moon. This is what was, & is taught in schools. ...
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How close to a host star can a tidally locked planet be and its dark side still maintain a moderate temperature?
So, imagine an atmosphere-less planet, tidally locked to a sun-like star. How close to the star can the planet be before its dark side becomes too hot?
I imagine that at some point the rocks on its ...
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Tidally locked Venus, is it possible and consequences?
Suppose, Venus becomes tidally locked. Will its dark side cool enough so that the CO2 from the atmosphere to precipitate in liquid form to make an ocean?
Also, I wonder, how close Venus is to becoming ...
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If all the Trappist-1 planets are tidally locked, which ones may have temperate zones?
Since all the Trappist-1 planets have circular orbits, it is entirely likely that all them are tidally locked.
If so, which ones of the planets may have temperate zones either on the bright or dark ...
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Is a three body gravitating system doomed to collapse?
Suppose we have two gravitating bodies, which are rotating around each other. They are bodies and are affected by deformation caused by tidal forces. Moving tidal waves suck energy from the axial ...
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Are there any bodies in the solar system whose rotation is almost tidally locked or barely tidally locked?
The Moon's rotation is firmly tidally locked to the Earth and the Earth's rotation is firmly tidally unlocked with respect to the Moon. I gather that Mercury's rotation is tidally locked in a 3:2 ...
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Has the Earth-facing side of the Moon that we see today always faced us ever since the Moon got tidally locked? Or does it precess?
Title. Does the Earth-facing side of the Moon slowly precess due to perturbations and torques exerted by other bodies? Or is the side of the Moon we see today the same as when it first got tidally ...
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Does tidal locking also slowly reduce the orbiting body's axial angle?
The Moon is tidally locked to the Earth, and it has an axial angle of 6.687 degrees relative to its orbital plane. I'd like to know: did the Moon start out with a higher axial angle?
In other words, ...
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Why doesn't Earth's leading tidal bulge cause the Moon to start spinning in the opposite direction than its original spin?
Please refer to the image below:
My question is, why doesn't Earth's leading tidal bulge (encircled in the green circle 1) pull on the moon's tidal bulge (encircled in green circle 2), leading to a ...
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Do retrograde spin-orbit resonances exist?
The end state of rotation of an initially fast-spinning prograde terrestrial planet (in the absence of additional forcings such as "thermal tides" in an atmosphere, e.g. Venus) is a spin-...
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How would a retrograde satellite experiencing tidal deceleration affect the rotation of the primary?
There are two common scenarios like this one, where an orbiting body orbits its primary slower than the primary rotates, resulting in the orbiting body moving away and the primary experiencing a ...
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Where did the idea that tidally-locked planets have a big hurricane come from?
I've been noticing a bit of a trend in the depiction of tidally-locked habitable planets, where they are shown having a huge hurricane-like storm over the daylight hemisphere. Here's an example, and ...
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How much (more or less) of the moon will be visible as it recedes from the Earth?
The Moon is receding from the Earth, at a rate of about 4 cm per year. We can currently see about 59% of the Moon's surface, from the Earth's surface.
Will the amount of the Moon's surface we can see ...
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Shouldn't tidal locking be impossible for a satellite that has a considerably eccentric orbit?
This popped up into my mind just now. The Moon is tidally locked to Earth, and also has a significantly eccentric orbit. This means that its orbital velocity near periapsis is considerably faster than ...
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Does a rotating moon experience greater tidal heating than a tidally locked equivalent?
Tidal heating of a tidally locked moon is relatively straight forward to calculate, even though details of its internal structure is hard to work out in the first place.
By contrast, tidal heating due ...
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Can tidal locking increase rotational kinetic energy? Where does the energy come from then? [closed]
I was thinking about the explanation for how the Moon gets tidally locked with the Earth. We are working in the non-rotating reference frame of the Earth, and assume it is inertial (to an approximate ...
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As the Moon and the Earth are predicted to get into tidal lock, how slow would the Earth rotate?
This answer to Will the Earth ever be tidally locked to the Moon? supports the widely held thinking that during the Sun's red giant phase or later the Earth and the Moon should be tidally locked to ...
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How can the Earth and the Moon be in synchronous rotation if the Moon won't be in geostationary orbit?
It is said that the Moon moves away from Earth and that during the Sun's red giant or white dwarf phase the Moon will be about 40% farther than now and in a synchronous rotation ("hantle rotation&...
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Can tidally locked planets have liquid oceans on their night side, and would such a planet be habitable?
Let's say we have a tidally locked planet orbiting a star. And let's say that the conditions on its surface are just right for water to exist on its surface. Conventional wisdom says that the water on ...
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How will the Solar tides affect the Earth's rotation once it is tidally locked to the Moon?
It is my understanding that the tidal forces of the Moon acting on Earth cause it to slow down its rotation and, because angular momentum is conserved, the Moon's orbit subsequently expands. This ...
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Why do planets in red dwarf star systems tend to have a higher probability to get tidally locked?
I have read about about the habitability of red dwarf systems on Wikipedia, as well as some web articles on similar topics. The problem is, it does not explain why and how it happened. Google search ...
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Could iron rain upset tidally locked WASP76b?
The Jupiter mass planet WASP76b orbits its 1.5*Sunmass star at 0.03AU and is tidally locked. The day side heats to 2400C which vaporizes metals, including iron observed in its atmosphere. The balmy ...
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Could iron rain upset tidally locked WASP76b? [duplicate]
The Jupiter mass planet WASP76b orbits its 1.5*Sunmass star at 0.03AU and is tidally locked. The day side heats to 2400C which vaporizes metals, including iron observed in its atmosphere. The balmy ...
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