Can a gas giant be tidally locked? I found one due to Elite Observatory (great this program is) but I can't imagine a ball of gas being actually tidally locked...
Tidally locked gas giant?
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Lots, specially gas giants in binary systems with other gas giants. You also have to remember that just because a body is tidally locked doesn't mean it has a slow rotation, I have seen gas giants with orbital periods under a day in binary system with other gas giants, that just means they still rotate on their axis in less than a day, so it's really no big deal. But don't get to focussed on balls of gas, they aren't just balls of gas, metalic hydrogen is thing.
In a word, yes.
Tidal locking is the result of two conflicting gravitational forces: gravity from the gas giant, trying to keep the ball of gas spherical, and gravity from the other thing the planet is orbiting, which is generating tides that are trying to pull the gas giant apart. The compromise between these two forces is an oval or egg-shape (which is not represented in ED currently - planets can be oblate due to rapid rotation, but cannot have tidal bulges).
If the gas giant is rotating at any rate other than 1:1 with the orbit of its partner, then the tidal bulges must be moving aroound the planet as the planet rotates. Unless the mass is in the form of a superfluid, moving mass interacting with itself always loses energy, via friction or other means, and that energy is removed from the kinetic energy of the rotating planet and released as heat.
Tidal locking is the result of two conflicting gravitational forces: gravity from the gas giant, trying to keep the ball of gas spherical, and gravity from the other thing the planet is orbiting, which is generating tides that are trying to pull the gas giant apart. The compromise between these two forces is an oval or egg-shape (which is not represented in ED currently - planets can be oblate due to rapid rotation, but cannot have tidal bulges).
If the gas giant is rotating at any rate other than 1:1 with the orbit of its partner, then the tidal bulges must be moving aroound the planet as the planet rotates. Unless the mass is in the form of a superfluid, moving mass interacting with itself always loses energy, via friction or other means, and that energy is removed from the kinetic energy of the rotating planet and released as heat.
Deleted member 166264
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According to this article, most hot jupiters are tidally locked.
https://www.sciencealert.com/hot-jupiter-wasp-104b-one-of-the-darkest-planets-ever
https://www.sciencealert.com/hot-jupiter-wasp-104b-one-of-the-darkest-planets-ever