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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Camber" data-source="post: 5347220" data-attributes="member: 96548">The "rotation" of 37 days only means that the planet rotates relative to a stationary observer, but not relative to the red dwarf. Theh same side always faces the red dwarf.The National Geographic piece <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/CNeTxPgGJ7I&hl" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/CNeTxPgGJ7I&hl</a>  noted that red dwarfs are almost always flare stars--they would be very dangerous neighbors if you didn't have some way of protecting yourself from being cooked by the solar flares (especially when you are as close to the star as Gliese 581g appears to be).There's a nice page answering some questions on the planet <a href="http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/habitable-alien-planet-gliese-581g-facts-101001.html" target="_blank">here</a>.One of the <a href="http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=gliese-581-exoplanet-100929-02.jpg&cap=The+orbits+of+planets+in+the+Gliese+581+system%2C+compared+to+those+of+our+own+solar+system.+The+Gliese+581+star+has+about+30+percent+the+mass+of+our+sun%2C+and+the+outermost+planet+is+closer+to+its+star+than+we+are+to+the+sun.+The+4th+planet%2C+G%2C+could+sustain+life.+Credit%3A+Zina+Deretsky%2C+National+Science+Foundation" target="_blank">sidebars</a> showed a comparison of this planet's orbit with Earth's, and you'll note how close it is to some large planets. I wonder if there could be any tidal pulling from the nearby planets? They seem to be rather tightly packed together compared to the setup we have at Sol.I've run into some information (<a href="http://cseligman.com/text/planets/magnetism.htm" target="_blank">here</a> is an example) on magnetic fields, vulcanism, and rotation that suggest that rotation and magnetism of a planet are connected. For example, Venus used to be volcanic, but appears to have cooled down internally to the point that its molten core didn't flow in currents anymore, which caused it to lose its magnetism, which in turn caused it to virtually stop rotating. Mars similarly seems to have lost a lot of its internal temperature, which has caused its vulcanism to slow down, but it is still rotating pretty rapidly (almost as fast as Earth).Here's an interesting quote on the topic (again, from <a href="http://cseligman.com/text/planets/magnetism.htm" target="_blank">here</a>): It leads me to think of the magnetism of a planet as being kind of like its life-force. When the planet cools down and the magnetism is lost, the planet has essentially died, and eventually you lose rotation also. This would lead one to say that Gaia is still alive, Mars is limping along, and Venus is essentially dead.So a tidally-locked planet that has vulcanism because of outside forces (such as tidal forces) instead of from internal magnetism and magma currents might be sort of undead--an animated but dead planet.The idea of having a story focused around efforts to restart the rotation of a planet is one that is full of interesting possibilities. What if the thing that was needed was to reheat the core and get it magnetized again, which would then slowly jump-start the rotation.I am envisioning it taking a great deal of power and energy, probably at great cost. Just exactly what that cost would be, and how the decision is made to make the necessary sacrifices, is what would make the story interesting to me.</blockquote>

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