So consider an extreme: a tide-locked planet in that same orbit. if it begins to rotate, does the average temperature increase or decrease? I don’t actually know, and can’t think of a reason it would change. The sunrise will now have access to surface area not yet at the inferno equilibrium, so it’ll be absorbing heat. But the sunset is doing the opposite: radiating all that heat that’s no longer being replenished.
Does it matter if the planetary material absorbs and radiates heat at different rates? Is that even possible?
Edit: extend this idea. Take a tide-locked planet at equilibrium. Magically flip it so the cold side is toward the sun and the hot side toward space. Give it time to come back to equilibrium. Average surface temperature at t and t is the same, right? During this period, does the average rise and then fall back, or does it drop and then rise back?
I think I recall that hot things radiate faster than cold thing absorb heat, which implies it’ll overall cool and then come back up after the now-cold side reaches minimum temperature before the now-hot side reaches maximum. which implies that spinning faster makes the average cooler.
I guess there may be some energy effects of the rotation itself, generating a bit of heat from internal differentials.
So consider an extreme: a tide-locked planet in that same orbit. if it begins to rotate, does the average temperature increase or decrease? I don’t actually know, and can’t think of a reason it would change. The sunrise will now have access to surface area not yet at the inferno equilibrium, so it’ll be absorbing heat. But the sunset is doing the opposite: radiating all that heat that’s no longer being replenished.
Does it matter if the planetary material absorbs and radiates heat at different rates? Is that even possible?
Edit: extend this idea. Take a tide-locked planet at equilibrium. Magically flip it so the cold side is toward the sun and the hot side toward space. Give it time to come back to equilibrium. Average surface temperature at t and t is the same, right? During this period, does the average rise and then fall back, or does it drop and then rise back?
I think I recall that hot things radiate faster than cold thing absorb heat, which implies it’ll overall cool and then come back up after the now-cold side reaches minimum temperature before the now-hot side reaches maximum. which implies that spinning faster makes the average cooler.
I guess there may be some energy effects of the rotation itself, generating a bit of heat from internal differentials.
Heat is actually being generated by the tidal effects here on Earth. The mechanical energy gradually becomes heat.
But those are miniscule amounts, irrelevant for our problem as stated.