[TML] "Dies the Fire"

[shadow at shadowgard.com]

On 10 Dec 2007 at 18:16, Stuart Frew wrote:

> > > So the sun would always be on one side but it could rise and set.
> >
> > No, half the time it's on one side, half on the other.
> >
> Yeap, I meant there would be hills with permanent shadow on one side.
> 
> How would that effect the plants? Sunflowers ala ringworld but reflecting the 
> light onto their own leaves on the dark side of hills?

Well, the shadows won't be *that* bad. But you'd get a lot more 
niches for shade loving species.

I could also see (for the fantasy types or even some SF type races, 
where there'd be roads with high berms along one side for these that 
can't handle direct sunlight.

A lot of work (but not that much compared to what goes into the 
*rest* of a roman type road) but worth it.

And even "normal" races might want something like that in the far 
sunward areas.

I'm trying to picture what a landscape with air that hits 600 or 700 
C during the daytime might be like. Or where nightime temps drop to 
the point where air liquefies.

Both are possible if the disk is big enough.

I don't think we want to go much colder at the outer edge, as if air 
can freeze, it's apt to stay there until a volcano melts it.

And you can't get *too* much hotter at the inner edge without some 
rocks melting. As it is, I expect most mountains to slump a lot.

Assuming plate tectonics causes stuff to move sunward/antisunward as 
well as starward/antistarward, plates moving in from either area are 
gonna be weird.

And life on plates drifting out of the "easily habitable" zone will 
be moving slowly enough for some really strange adaptations to 
evolve.

--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com