A theoretic world question.

[TerranceL]

Nope, not quite.

I even googled that... fail.

 

[metherion]

What about rings? Some ring or rings, perhaps made of the right things (maybe water, maybe SiO2 or something similar) might bounce light around the planet somewhat. A couple large and/or reflective enough rings might do it.

Metherion

 

[Rion]

Hey, are you writing sci-fi here?

If you're willing to go for a compromise, make it tidally locked. You could at least have half a planet with permanent daylight that way, and therefore entire ecosystems that never saw night ; Here's some interesting climate simulations for tidally locked Earths)

Technically fantasy, but I hate just saying "magic" as an excuse for anything. Thanks for the link.

 

[Rion]

What about rings? Some ring or rings, perhaps made of the right things (maybe water, maybe SiO2 or something similar) might bounce light around the planet somewhat. A couple large and/or reflective enough rings might do it.

Metherion

That's an interesting idea as well. Would it cause te actual side experiencing day any side-effects?

 

[metherion]

That's an interesting idea as well. Would it cause te actual side experiencing day any side-effects?

Not a clue. If I had to guess for effects on the day side on a planet with rings reflective enough to ensure permanent day (or at least twilight) across the whole planet, I would probably expect:

A) A really stunning view all the dang time.
B) No tides unless you also had a moon, which (depending on planet size) might screw up the rings. The center of mass of the rings would be in/near the center of the planet, unlike the earth/moon system we have now.
C) There might possibly be a semipermanent solar eclipse at certain points 'under' the rings, depending on if you have an earth-like axial tilt or not. If you have a tilt, it would probably be a seasonal thing, maybe monuments like Stonehenge built to measure the seasons based on the ring shadows or somesuch.
D) If it's THAT reflective, you might also have some spots on the planet's surface that are just melted, or else really hot from light being reflected onto the dayside of the planet. Then again, maybe not, because the planet and and surface 'shine spots' would always be rotating and moving under the rings. Maybe a crisscross 'dead zone' circling the planet like the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn on earth where everything has to be underground or it might get melted under the rings, unless it crosses an ocean or something.
Edited to add: You may also have shadows on the day side where the rings are deflecting all the sunlight away, as well. Or, you might have both, just in different spots. The rings deflect light AWAY from... say, the equator, but TO, say Capricorn.

Of course, all that COULD be wrong, but that's what I would think would happen.

Metherion

 

[dbcsf]

if we were locked in daylight we would never see the stars and be aware generally of the world of astronomy.

 

[CabVet]

if we were locked in daylight we would never see the stars and be aware generally of the world of astronomy.

Never is a strong word, I am sure we eventually would become aware. In case you didn't know, there are some space objects that we can see during the day even with the full brightness of the sun. Venus and a bright supernova are just two examples.

 

[Naraoia]

Technically fantasy, but I hate just saying "magic" as an excuse for anything. Thanks for the link.

Being an evolutionary biologist and a certified pedant, I tried to make my non-human sentient species make sense, but beyond a certain point I just went "screw that, they're that way because it's cool." (Seeing as I write in a no-magic world, I'm not sure that was a great idea, but then again, the likelihood of anyone else beyond me reading that stuff is pretty low...)

if we were locked in daylight we would never see the stars and be aware generally of the world of astronomy.

And then we'd end up like the Krikkiters.

 

[dbcsf]

I would also recommend moving the planet a bit further from the sun to counteract global warming from increased radiant light energy warming up the surface.

 

[metherion]

I just had a thought, Rion...

My previous post assumes horizontal rings, like Saturn has, on a planet spinning like the Earth does.

Something else you might consider is vertical rings, like Uranus has, but with the planet still spinning like earth. The rings would probably be on the twilight line, so they'd be directly overhead right at sunset and sunrise, just like the sun is overhead right at noon.

That would also totally null my previously listed point D in all likelihood, but is another idea to consider.

Metherion

 

[dbcsf]

Another thought, how do plants grow in complete sunlight? Do some plants do better with periods of darkness? As I recall, corn engages in respiration at night. My memory is pretty hazy, but I believe I remember it as being of some importance to the growing of corn. If corn were to grow poorly, we might have to replace it with another food source. Corn is pretty huge. Maybe wheat or rice could step up to the plate.

 

[CabVet]

Another thought, how do plants grow in complete sunlight? Do some plants do better with periods of darkness? As I recall, corn engages in respiration at night. My memory is pretty hazy, but I believe I remember it as being of some importance to the growing of corn. If corn were to grow poorly, we might have to replace it with another food source. Corn is pretty huge. Maybe wheat or rice could step up to the plate.

All plants engage in respiration at night, they only do photosynthesis when there is light.

You are now talking about life as we know it in a hypothetical planet without night. The habitats of such planet would be so vastly different that life there would be enormously different as well.

 

[Naraoia]

Another thought, how do plants grow in complete sunlight? Do some plants do better with periods of darkness? As I recall, corn engages in respiration at night. My memory is pretty hazy, but I believe I remember it as being of some importance to the growing of corn. If corn were to grow poorly, we might have to replace it with another food source. Corn is pretty huge. Maybe wheat or rice could step up to the plate.

I think plants would actually be fine in complete sunlight provided they get enough moisture. I don't know about corn, but the reason many plants in hot and dry habitats "breathe" at night is to conserve water.

 

[Rion]

Another thought, how do plants grow in complete sunlight? Do some plants do better with periods of darkness? As I recall, corn engages in respiration at night. My memory is pretty hazy, but I believe I remember it as being of some importance to the growing of corn. If corn were to grow poorly, we might have to replace it with another food source. Corn is pretty huge. Maybe wheat or rice could step up to the plate.

Well again, I'm not going for complete daylight. More of a dusk/evening type of effect. I had decided on that, rather than complete daytime, because people do better when sleeping in darkness, rather than having excess light in the room.

 

[Tomk80]

Well again, I'm not going for complete daylight. More of a dusk/evening type of effect. I had decided on that, rather than complete daytime, because people do better when sleeping in darkness, rather than having excess light in the room.

But then, if people have evolved in a world that has a perpetual day, they either have evolved not to sleep, or find sleeping during day easy.

If you want to use it as a story, it might actually give an interesting cultural aspect. Not having day and night would mean that people would have adapted for sleeping in a different way, or that cultural differences around sleeping could take interesting forms.

 

[dbcsf]

People may take to spelunking with an increased level of excitement.

 

[TerranceL]

I was thinking what if the world is riddled with caves and the population spends a great deal of their time underground?

But then I couldn't figure out why a population that had evolved in an enviroment like this would feelt the need to get away from the sunlight.

What if this wasn't how they had evolved? What if the moon/s that were reflecting the light back onto the planet was just a planetoid that had been captured by the planets gravity?

I don't know if that would work.

 

[dbcsf]

Perhaps internal convection of our planet's magma would increase resulting in an increase in the earth's magnetic field. With an increased magnetic field, and a few more sunspots, we might possibly have a more permanent aurora borealis. The aurora has reached the equator a few times in recent history, and it would make an attractive gloaming.

 

[USincognito]

For the sake of argument, let's say the world's the same size as Earth, with the distance from the sun and rotation.

Now, is there something that could, in theory mind you, allow it so that the planet never experiences a complete night/absence of sunlight? Like something in the atmosphere which causes a refraction of the sunlight so that there's a dusk/twilight effect until the sun rises the next day?

This isn't at all what you're asking for, but here's two things you and others might find interesting.

Alpha Centauri is a trinary system, and a hypothetical planet in the same position as earth relative to the sun (either A C A or A C B) would have basically a 6 month period where nights would be akin to a total solar eclipse, while the other 6 months would be normal day/night.
Alpha Centauri - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Also, I don't know how many of you get out late a night, and are in urban environments with lots of light pollution, but when the clouds are the right thickness and altitude (like 3,000 ft. or less) the majority of the bounces back and creates an ambient situation that is bright enough that you can see clear details at a distance of things you can't even see during a full moon with a clear sky.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Yes. Multiple satellites and multiple stars would both make it a possibility. Also a possibility is having a differentially refractive atmosphere - i.e. deeper layers have a higher refractive index than higher layers. The light enters almost parallel to the atmosphere, and as it goes deeper it gets bend more and more, until there is light bending 90 degrees to hit the night side. This would obviously be a problem in terms of both finding an atmosphere like this and having enough light to keep it illuminated, but it may work.