The article did mention that probably only the strip would be habitable. However, we even have examples of extreme-temperature microorganisms on Earth, so I don’t think that we should rule out the possibility of life on the far or near sides. However, it is true that life is complex enough that the general probability of finding it on a given potentially habitable planet is almost certainly extremely low.
If you want anything more complex than extremeophile bacteria, you’ll need an atmosphere, and that’s something you won’t have if if all freezes on the “night pole”.
Additionally, large bodies of liquid water would be scarce; if a lake extends onto the day side, it’ll boil away until it doesn’t. If it extends onto the night side, it’ll be frozen, though I’m not entirely sure of what the fluid mechanics of the resulting situation would look like; you might get cycles of the ice building up and breaking off into the rest of the lake.
The article did mention that probably only the strip would be habitable. However, we even have examples of extreme-temperature microorganisms on Earth, so I don’t think that we should rule out the possibility of life on the far or near sides. However, it is true that life is complex enough that the general probability of finding it on a given potentially habitable planet is almost certainly extremely low.
If you want anything more complex than extremeophile bacteria, you’ll need an atmosphere, and that’s something you won’t have if if all freezes on the “night pole”.
Additionally, large bodies of liquid water would be scarce; if a lake extends onto the day side, it’ll boil away until it doesn’t. If it extends onto the night side, it’ll be frozen, though I’m not entirely sure of what the fluid mechanics of the resulting situation would look like; you might get cycles of the ice building up and breaking off into the rest of the lake.