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Worldbuilding

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  • $\begingroup$ Awesome again. I take your point about the magnetosphere, raised in your answer to my other question (which you linked to). I may take your advice and just move the moon closer in. The other problem presented here, regarding habitability under very long day/night cycle conditions, is interesting. Looking at Dole's book, it appears the slow-rotation limit estimation is based on assuming a) inhospitable temperatures at the equator and poles, which may leave a possibly habitable in-between zone, and b) too much or too little sunlight for earth-like plantlife during the long day/night periods... $\endgroup$
    – B. T. Newberg
    Commented Mar 28, 2021 at 16:21
  • $\begingroup$ I wonder, then, if a very long day/night cycle could be perfectly habitable in mid-latitude regions if the plant life adapts to either high-light day or low-light night conditions, and goes into a semi-hibernation during the other period? Perhaps it evolves leaves with shields not unlike eylids that close against excess sunlight during daytime, and open during nighttime to photosynthesize the considerable amount of light reflected by the Saturn-like planet, which as we've seen here is 21 times brighter than Earth's moon, or more if I move the moon closer. $\endgroup$
    – B. T. Newberg
    Commented Mar 28, 2021 at 16:21
  • $\begingroup$ Alternatively, perhaps human habitability need not depend on plantlife at all, but could be sustained by fungal life not dependent on sunlight? $\endgroup$
    – B. T. Newberg
    Commented Mar 28, 2021 at 16:21
  • $\begingroup$ I don't think that plant life would suffer from too much light during long days. It would suffer from too much heat during long days of consant light, and then suffer from too much cold during long nights. As for fungal life supporting human life, humans could eat fungi, and sometimes do, but the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere is produced by photosynthasizing plants. Intelligent aliens, or human colonists, or native animals, would be unable to breath without photosynthasizing plants unles they created an artifical oxygen atmosphere on the moon.. $\endgroup$
    – M. A. Golding
    Commented Mar 28, 2021 at 16:31