Question of the Day

[Dreaddisease]

Here is a weird question. If you had a world whose axis was completely horizontal to its orbit where at least two places would always be in sunlight, how would it affect the weather? Cutting past the practicle sense of lack of seasonal change, unless it has to do with the eliptical orbit in which there would be two season changes a year. Um. What would the world be like near the poles?

Comment as you like.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Here is a weird question. If you had a world whose axis was completely horizontal to its orbit where at least two places would always be in sunlight, how would it affect the weather? Cutting past the practicle sense of lack of seasonal change, unless it has to do with the eliptical orbit in which there would be two season changes a year. Um. What would the world be like near the poles?

Comment as you like.

well, I imagine it would be extremely hot on the pole facing the sun, and extremely cold on the pole facing the sun. Temperature would gradiate along that axis, from warm to cold. I don't know how this might affect something like and ocean on the hot end, though there would be ice caps on the cold end. In general, I think it would end up affecting terrain more than weather, but I have no clue.

 

[Dreaddisease]

Maybe I should clarify. The poles are located on the orbital path of the planet, thus every part of the planet would have access to the sun at one point or another. Only the poles would always have a view of the sun.

 

[Eldorian]

Maybe I should clarify. The poles are located on the orbital path of the planet, thus every part of the planet would have access to the sun at one point or another. Only the poles would always have a view of the sun.

Technically only a very small part of the pole would have a full day of sunlight. Depending on the location relative to the sun and the ammount of green house gases in the atmosphere, I suspect you could get the full range of earth like weather, just without seasonal change, barring, as you said, a pronouced eliptical oribt. As such, either much of your planet could be constantly below freezing level, or the equator could be extremely hot, or if enough green house gases where present, your planet could be mostly inhabitable. (or mostly uninhabitable, depending on how far from the sun it was).

Also, techincally, it would be very hard for the poles to be along the orbital path, seeing as how this would be considered a year long rotation about a pole that was perpendicular to the orbital path and the line from the sun to the planet. This state could not keep indefinatly, because of gravity lock (rotation of planets slows down, like how Mercury and the Moon both orbit thier parent body exactly once a day). If you wanted a planet with the same effect, year long sunlight at the poles, consider a planet that rotates around an axis that is perpendicular to the orbital path and to the line from the sun to the planet.

This is my disclaimer tho, I am a mathematician, and I've not studied more than calculus based physics at university. Astronomy is sort of a hobby tho.

Eldorian Antar