If the Sun Stops Setting, There'll Be the ONLY Place to Survive

Bright Side

Imagine a world where the sun never sets. Well, believe it or not, there's a scenario where that could actually happen. It's called being tidally locked, where one side of the planet is always facing the sun and the other side is stuck in perpetual darkness. In this "twilight zone" between scorching hot and freezing cold, there's a chance that life could hang on. Picture humans getting all sci-fi, transporting heat and water to survive, and inventing cool tech to shield against solar radiation. It's like a real-life survival movie, but with a twist that's straight out of science fiction.

Transcript

00:00Tidal locking is when a moon or a planet always shows the same face to another celestial body.

00:05I know I do.

00:07The moon, for instance, always shows one side to Earth.

00:11It doesn't matter if you use binoculars or a telescope,

00:14you'll see the same craters and planes every time.

00:18This happens with many big moons in space.

00:20Take Jupiter's moon, Io, or Saturn's moon in Cetalus.

00:24Even Mercury, which rotates three times around its axis for every two leaps around the Sun,

00:30is almost tidally locked to our star.

00:33Now, here on our planet, the moon's pull creates tides on Earth,

00:37making the water rise about a foot.

00:39This pull also stretches the moon, making it slightly football-shaped.

00:44Many years ago, the moon spun way faster than it does today.

00:48This made its protruding part shift constantly, like the Earth's tides.

00:51But the moon's bulges didn't align with Earth's pull.

00:55Soon enough, the Earth's gravity pulled them in closer,

00:58slowing the moon's spin until it stopped.

01:01But if we look at the grand scheme of things,

01:04we'll see that our planet isn't tidally locked to the Sun.

01:07Earth rotates on its axis, completing one rotation roughly every 24 hours,

01:13while orbiting its star.

01:14This rotation creates day and night.

01:17Lots of things prevent our planet from constantly showing the same face to the Sun.

01:21First, Earth's rotation rate isn't perfectly synchronized with its orbit around the star.

01:27The presence of the moon also plays a crucial role.

01:30Our satellite's gravitational pull creates tides on Earth,

01:33which slightly slows down Earth's rotation over time and balances things out.

01:38There's also quite an impressive distance between the Sun and the Earth – 93 million miles.

01:43So, even if the Sun's gravitational force is intense,

01:47it's far enough away to prevent tidal locking.

01:53Now, what if space travel gets advanced enough that we end up visiting such a tidally locked planet?

01:59One that is constantly trapped between two extremes – eternal darkness and constant sunshine?

02:05We can gather some data by figuring out what would happen if the Earth suddenly stopped spinning on its axis.

02:11Bad news is, the consequences would be devastating.

02:15Right now, we're all moving along with Earth's rotation, even if we don't feel it.

02:20If the planet stopped, everything on its surface would be launched eastward.

02:24People, buildings, and natural features hurtling sideways at high speeds.

02:29Afterward, the remaining high-speed winds, still rotating nearly as fast as the planet,

02:34would damage its surface, acting as a cosmic nail file.

02:37Even if the slowdown happened gradually, the effects would still be dramatic.

02:43The first noticeable change would be the Sun's motion across the sky.

02:47Without Earth's rotation, a day would last a half a year.

02:51This disruption would throw off our biological rhythms,

02:54affecting sleep dynamics and daily activities for many species.

02:58Earth's rotation also influences atmospheric patterns, which affect the weather and climate.

03:03Air currents would change too, leading to extreme events like desertification or the melting of polar ice caps.

03:11Hurricanes, reliant on Earth's rotation to form, would cease to exist.

03:16A motionless Earth would likely translate to the loss of our magnetic field,

03:20which shields us from harmful cosmic rays and solar storms.

03:24Boy, we in trouble now, huh?

03:25In the same thought experiment, let's say oceans won't freeze where it's cold or evaporate where it's hot.

03:35Because of its spin, there's a centrifugal force that has made our planet a bit wider around its middle.

03:41If we measure the Earth around the equator, it's about 13 miles wider than if we measure it from pole to pole.

03:47This widening of the solid Earth happened very slowly over billions of years.

03:52But the liquid water in the oceans would move more easily.

03:56Because of the spin, the water around the equator is about 5 miles higher than it would be on a still planet.

04:03If the Earth stopped spinning, the oceans would start moving towards the poles.

04:08At first, only some areas around the equator would become land.

04:11But eventually, a big continent would form in the middle, like a belt.

04:16You could walk around the Earth at the equator without getting wet,

04:19even though it would be really cold on one side and really hot on the other.

04:24The water that might move away from the equator would end up at the poles.

04:28There would be two separate oceans around each of these points,

04:31with no connection to the equatorial continent.

04:34In the north, Canada, Greenland, Asia, and Europe would all be underwater,

04:39following a line similar to the border between the US and Canada.

04:43But countries like Spain, for instance, would mostly stay above water.

04:47Despite these extremes, some say life could still exist in the twilight zone between light and dark.

04:54If we could draw it, it would be this softly illuminated region,

04:58looking like it's always on the brink of a sunset.

05:01This in-between domain could potentially offer the ideal conditions for life,

05:06with temperatures balanced between extremes.

05:08The planet would end up resembling an eye.

05:11Its sunward-facing hemisphere would look like a parched pupil,

05:14encircled by a blue-green iris, the place with lots of water and vegetation.

05:22Now, it's not all that grim.

05:24Since there's liquid water on our planet's surface,

05:27sunlight could turn it into clouds that could help us control the temperature,

05:31should it stop spinning.

05:32Also, the way heat moves around in the air could make the climate nicer overall.

05:38Winds could carry warmth from the sunny side to the dark side,

05:41similar to how ocean currents warm up Europe and cool down Africa.

05:46Plus, the way gases move in the air might stop a planet from getting stuck facing one way all the time.

05:52Venus, for instance, should be locked in place facing the sun,

05:55but its atmosphere helps keep it turning.

05:59Our planet might end up pulling a similar trick.

06:02Rainfall on a tidally locked planet could further regulate temperatures,

06:06especially if there's enough land.

06:07On Earth, rain interacts with rocks, trapping carbon and cooling the atmosphere.

06:13This process could also help manage carbon dioxide levels.

06:17If we were to prepare for a tidally locked world,

06:21the Sahara Desert would be a good place to start the boot camp.

06:25Located in North Africa, it is the biggest hot desert globally.

06:29It covers a vast area from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea

06:32and from the Mediterranean Sea to the Sahel region.

06:35During the day, the temperatures get really hot, up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit,

06:41and at night, it can get as cold as 41 degrees.

06:45That is a wide swing.

06:46You might stumble upon a sandstorm here and there, but rain is very rare.

06:51When it does happen, though, it's intense and can cause flash floods,

06:55making the area dangerous.

06:57Despite the tough conditions, some animals manage to survive here.

07:01One such creature is the Kennec fox, which is the smallest fox to exist on our planet.

07:06It has big ears that help it handle the heat,

07:09and its environment stretches from Morocco to Egypt,

07:12and even down south to northern Niger and east to Kuwait.

07:16It eats whatever birds, insects, and rodents it can find in the sand.

07:20As for the coldest place on Earth, data suggests it's located in the eastern Antarctic plateau.

07:28Research indicates that the air temperature there can drop to minus 137 degrees Fahrenheit.

07:34Now, if we need to find animals that have adapted well to living in

07:38refrigerator with built-in ice maker-like conditions,

07:41we just need to look at the emperor penguins.

07:44They gather in tight groups, sometimes with huge numbers of these birds, to keep warm.

07:48They can't stay in these huddles for too long, though, because they get too hot.

07:53Scientists found out in 2015 that it can get as hot as 100 degrees Fahrenheit

07:58in the middle of the penguin mosh pit.

08:01These birds are the only animals that produce offspring during the Antarctic winter.

08:06They travel quite far, somewhere around 50 to 100 miles, to lay just one egg.

08:12While the dad keeps the egg warm for about two months,

08:15mom goes back to the edge of the ice to find food.

08:18It's a routine that usually works well, as long as the weather is consistent.

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