# Fascinating video if you need a sci-fi idea



## Ralph Rotten (Oct 21, 2018)

Found this on the tube, It's a study of what Proxima B could be (the nearest planet) to earth.

There is a section where they theorize that it may be tidally locked to the star (a red dwarf, so it is very close).

So if that were the case, then you'd have a planet where one side was always daytime, and the other was always night. Imagine if you had creatures evolve on each side of the planet.  One would be the unicorn side, sunny creatures. And the other could the nightmare side.

I watched the video and thought it was a great video for budding sci-fi writers.
I liked it so much I practically beat off to it.
Geek out, kids!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR8HIDJsaHA


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## MadMickyG (Oct 28, 2018)

Perhaps the other way around could work too. Why do we always think light and dark are good and evil?


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## Ralph Rotten (Oct 30, 2018)

true dat. Some studies claim that humanity was more cooperative during times of lower temps. Could be the peaceniks are the dark side species, and the war mongers are the sunny-side up people.

Still, you would have 2 completely different worlds on one sphere. Not like Earth where the whole planet gets sun, on a tidally-locked planet one side faces the sun always, and one side faces darkness always. The life forms on the planet would have evolved for those environments.


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## epimetheus (Nov 2, 2018)

Perhaps we could flesh out a world here?

The first question i'd ask is whether the light and dark species evolved independently on other sides of the world, or they have a common ancestor that evolved in the eternal dusk where light and dark meet. The latter is far more realistic according to current scientific thought so really we'd be deciding whether this world is realistic or  fantastical.

Shall we assume: 1G? Tidally locked but is there a processional wobble? Moons?


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## Ralph Rotten (Nov 2, 2018)

And that is the $64 question: Would these 2 halves share a common ancestor or did they evolve from different slime pools? I'd lean towards the same slime pool, and they branched at plant stage.  Either way, they'd be so far apart as to be completely alien to each other. It'd be like Pitch Black.


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## Guard Dog (Nov 13, 2018)

Y'all wanna see that light side/dark side thing played out in a way not so permanent as a tidally-locked planet, watch the movie _Pitch Black._

Those "Dark Side" critters are no damn fun at all.




G.D.


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## Ralph Rotten (Nov 13, 2018)

Actually the more I think about it, the less likely that life would be conceived on the frozen side of the planet.
In theory you have higher chances of creating life in a warm/hot environment where liquids flow easily than you would where it is frozen solid.

So more likely life would originate on the warm side, and migrate to the dark side.
Still, after a few million years of evolution, the creatures would be quite different...even alien to one another.
The cold-side inhabitants would likely be hardier, used to working harder for the same food.
Cold-siders would prolly be smaller than their sunny side comrades.


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## Guard Dog (Nov 13, 2018)

Ralph Rotten said:


> Actually the more I think about it, the less likely that life would be conceived on the frozen side of the planet.
> In theory you have higher chances of creating life in a warm/hot environment where liquids flow easily than you would where it is frozen solid.
> 
> So more likely life would originate on the warm side, and migrate to the dark side.
> ...



I dunno... Even here on earth we have critters living right next to undersea volcanic vents that would cook most other life forms, but they get along just fine. And at the other end of the extreme are animals that survive in frozen environments, and generate their own anti-freeze that circulates through their bodies.

And that's not even taking into consideration that life elsewhere might be generated under a whole different set of rules, and use an entirely different chemistry than anything here does.



G.D.


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## Ralph Rotten (Nov 14, 2018)

But if the dark side of the planet is frozen solid then there is a lower probability of life springing forth. Liquid cannot flow if it is frozen.  Thermal vents could spawn life indeed, but those creatures would likely exist under a sheet of ice, never to interact with the warm world.

Or, that could be it; they have leviathans living under the ice of the cold side, and when they get hungry they swim around to the warm side and get some carryout.  Their insulation would make them extremely hard to kill, and once they retreat to the dark side I doubt anyone would chase them.  It'd be a nightmare on that side of the planet.


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## Guard Dog (Nov 14, 2018)

Ralph Rotten said:


> But if the dark side of the planet is frozen solid then there is a lower probability of life springing forth. Liquid cannot flow if it is frozen.  Thermal vents could spawn life indeed, but those creatures would likely exist under a sheet of ice, never to interact with the warm world.



Not much chance of the dark side bein' froze solid, if the planet has an atmosphere. Convection alone would assure some spots at least warm enough for some chemicals - maybe even water, if there's salt or other minerals in it - to stay liquid.

...and as you say, there's always under the ice. 

Speaking of which I've seen a fairly recent movie where some people went to Venus, I believe, and got into all sorts of trouble due to that very thing. 

Nope, just checked; it was Jupiter's moon, Europa: Europa Report (2013)

( Saw it on NetFlix, btw. )

So who knows... Science Fiction today, Science Fact tomorrow?


G.D.


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## Guard Dog (Nov 14, 2018)

By the way, Ralph, have you thought about what the weather would be like on a planet like that, if it does have an atmosphere? Especially at the margins between the light and dark sides?

...not the sort of spot you even wanna plan a day trip for, much less make any long-term plans for habitation.




G.D.


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## MadMickyG (Nov 15, 2018)

But that's all based on, as you said GD, our rules for life.  

We only think we know the rules for life spawning. Fantasy and fiction have beings made of energy, of light and such, so there could be millions of different ways life could form on a planet like that. We just dont have the science or imagination to think of it.

Hell, the life on the planet could be the wind, clouds or other things we see as natural events, able to traverse both sides of the planet without consequence, viewing the world below.


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## Olly Buckle (Nov 15, 2018)

Guard Dog said:


> I dunno... Even here on earth we have critters living right next to undersea volcanic vents that would cook most other life forms, but they get along just fine. And at the other end of the extreme are animals that survive in frozen environments, and generate their own anti-freeze that circulates through their bodies.
> 
> And that's not even taking into consideration that life elsewhere might be generated under a whole different set of rules, and use an entirely different chemistry than anything here does.



I have seen it posited that life originated in such vents and adapted to our more temperate world later. That is why scientists get excited about a geyser on an ice covered moon (of Saturn?), it could point to life beneath the ice.

Some rules for life seem better than just 'That's the way it is here'. Spectroscopes show which chemicals can combine at star distances, silicone seems to be the only one that could possibly make complex and varied enough compounds to make life, besides carbon of course, and if it did it would have to be very hot, you will never get to shake hands with a silicone based life-form


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## Guard Dog (Nov 15, 2018)

Olly Buckle said:


> Some rules for life seem better than just 'That's the way it is here'. Spectroscopes show which chemicals can combine at star distances, silicone seems to be the only one that could possibly make complex and varied enough compounds to make life, besides carbon of course, and if it did it would have to be very hot, you will never get to shake hands with a silicone based life-form



Yep, based on what we currently know, that's all true.

However, I'm of a mind that what we know probably isn't all that much, when it comes right down to it... and that sooner or later something else - some other bit of information we don't have and don't even know is there to have - could change everything we _think_ we know.

As for shaking hands with a silicon-based life-form... I don't expect it to ever happen either.

...but I'm certainly not gonna argue with he/she/it if it ever does, and try to convince it that it can't or doesn't exist.




G.D.


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## Olly Buckle (Nov 19, 2018)

> ...but I'm certainly not gonna argue with he/she/it if it ever does, and try to convince it that it can't or doesn't exist.


If mankind follows its usual course it will cease to exist soon after coming into contact with him, it will probably make good frying pan liners or tyres or some such.


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## Guard Dog (Nov 20, 2018)

Olly Buckle said:


> If mankind follows its usual course it will cease to exist soon after coming into contact with him, it will probably make good frying pan liners or tyres or some such.



...unless this silicone-based critter is of a similar bent, and decides humans are that final ingredient it's been looking for to perfect it's favorite home-brewed booze.

( By the way, if it's silicone-based, there's every chance someone will decide this creature will make good breast implants. Especially if it's pliable in a solid form. )



G.D.


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## Ralph Rotten (Nov 22, 2018)

Although sci-fi always shows many races coexisting in the same environments, this is really more fantasy than fact.
Humans evolved on Earth under a specific set of criteria.
It is statistically improbable that we will find a lotta planets like Earth, with it's specific atmospheric chemistry, gravity, and radiation limits.
More likely we will find a lot of planets that are ALMOST like Earth, but with a splash of ammonia in the atmosphere, or some other element that would be toxic to us.
It only takes 1 extra element in the atmosphere to make the air unsuitable for humans.
So the statistical probability is low that dozens of species would be able to breathe the same air, unassisted.


My theory is that there will be many planets where humans don;t go because they are too hazardous.  If aliens took over Venus, would we even care?


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## Olly Buckle (Nov 22, 2018)

> So the statistical probability is low that dozens of species would be able to breathe the same air, unassisted.


The statistical probability is low in any one case, but with billions of galaxies each containing billions of stars the probability is that they do exist, and surely, once they had worked out the logistics, they would seek each other out.


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