Eyeball Planets Are Likely Out There and Astronomers Say They Could Be Habitable
There is a classification of planets out there in the cosmos colloquially referred to by astronomers as Eyeball Planets. The moniker comes from their appearance which look like, well, eyeballs. Here’s why they look like that.
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00:00 There is a classification of planets out there in the cosmos, colloquially referred to by
00:07 astronomers as eyeball planets.
00:10 Their moniker comes from their appearance, which looks like, well, eyeballs.
00:13 But why do they look like that?
00:15 It all has to do with tidal locking, just like our moon is tidally locked to earth,
00:19 with only one side constantly facing us.
00:21 But if that cosmic body was instead a moon or a planet with water and continents like
00:25 earth, but was tidally locked to a much larger object like a star, one side would likely
00:29 be in constant sunlight, with a perpetual twilight area of liquid oceans.
00:34 The other side of the planet would be in constant darkness and would likely be entirely frozen,
00:38 giving the planet a pupil-iris sclera appearance.
00:41 What's even wilder about these eyeball planets, however, is that previous studies into their
00:45 planetology suggest the twilight oceanic areas could be habitable, with fertile regions for
00:50 growing and temperature control due to constant pseudo-daytime.
00:54 Astronomers also say that the constant sun side isn't necessarily a dry, arid place either.
00:58 If there is water present, we could discover large warm oceans just like on earth.
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