Crown-Horned Snorkack wrote:
> Mercury orbits Sun with 88 days orbit. Mercury does not rotate
> synchronously.
>
> The tidal forces on Mercury in perihelion are about 15 times stronger
> than tidal forces of Moon on Earth, and 11 times stronger than spring
> tides.
>
> 61 Cygni B is slightly less massive than Sun, and dimmer.
>
> A planet with about 91 days orbital period would orbit closer to 61
> Cygni B than Mercury to Sun. However, it would receive about as much
> heat from 61 Cygni B than Earth receives from Sun.
>
> So... what about a planet of 61 Cygni B, which orbits with about the
> orbital period of Mercury, is tidally locked 3:2 like Mercury, and
> also massive enough to hold an atmosphere and ocean? Day length 60
> times longer than Earth, and strong tides...
It would have to have a highly eccentric orbit like Mercury does, since
that's the reason why Mercury has a 3:2 resonance going. So you'd get a
significant change in solar heating over its orbit.
Oh, and like Mercury you'd get different "day" lengths (as in time from
sunrise to sunset) at different points on the planet's surface due to
the fact that the orbital and rotational speeds are so similar. I've
never seen a day length map for Mercury, does anyone know if one exists
or can be easily derived?
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