See title. This is a shower thought that popped into me while slowly waking up. I’m thinking, what if due to e.g. gravitational shenanigans, the pull on a planet is such that a planet stands relatively motionless in a fixed position towards its star?

Is that possible or am I forgetting some astronomy basics?

  • frongt@lemmy.zip
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    2 months ago

    If it was perfectly balanced, sure. Any slight imbalance would cause rapid destabilization.

    Also the pure gravitational forces might just rip that thing apart.

    • birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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      1 month ago

      So the stars would need to be tiny and the planet fairly massive? And how big an imbalance would cause destabilisation?