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Eyeball planet
Hypothetical type of tidally locked planet with spatial features resembling an eyeball / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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An eyeball planet is a hypothetical type of tidally locked planet, for which tidal locking induces spatial features (for example in the geography or composition of the planet) resembling an eyeball.[1] They are terrestrial planets where liquids may be present, in which tidal locking will induce a spatially dependent temperature gradient (the planet will be hotter on the side facing the star and colder on the other side). This temperature gradient may therefore limit the places in which liquid may exist on the surface of the planet to ring-or disk-shaped areas.
This article is missing information about More recent modelling of tidally-locked worlds disfavors the formation of eyeball planets in a majority of cases. (August 2024) |
Such planets are further divided into "hot" and "cold" types, depending on which side of the planet the liquid is present. A "hot" eyeball planet is usually closer to its host star, and the centre of the "eye", facing the star (day side), is made of rock while liquid is present on the opposite side (night side). A "cold" eyeball planet, usually farther from the star, will have liquid on the side facing the host star while the rest of its surface is made of ice and rocks.[citation needed]
Because most planetary bodies have a natural tendency toward becoming tidally locked to their host body for a long enough timeline, eyeball planets may be common and could host life, particularly in planetary systems orbiting red and brown dwarf stars which have lifespans much longer than other main sequence stars.[2]