Here's a Science Question for you...

[Ulta]

So I'm writing a comic series that's pretty sci-fi-ish and has a lot to do with space and planets, and while deciding things, I wondered about something...

I have an Earth-like planet with life on it, right? But I'm turning another planet into it's moon, fictionally to give this planet tides and stability in it's weather, and yet at the same time the same is happening for the other planet. Basically both are acting like each other's moons instead of there being a natural smaller satellite for each. The only reason I wanted to do the binary planet thing was cause there's something that hangs in one of their orbits that I want visible from this other planet.

It got me thinking though...could two planets locked in a cosmic dance like this actually support life? And if not, what needs to be added to help them out? As long as their tiny orbit around each other (just far enough to not crash into each other or pull the other in) was still going around a central Star and was at the right 'habitat zone' distance from it...I mean, other than some cases of extreme weather during certain times of the year, it could work maybe?

Throw your theories out there! I love talking about space science.

[Nickoli1900]

I don't see why it wouldn't work. If both were far enough away from the star they are orbiting, and spaced out enough to avoid a collision due to gravitational pull. I don't see any planet ending catastrophes happening, like an asteroid, that would end life on either planet. Maybe add a 3rd planet kinda like our Jupiter, which pulls in those kind of things to keep your planets safe from those annihilation situations. I dunno, whatever you decide will be best. I really enjoyed Hybridor btw. Gl with your comic.  

[Ulta]

On 7/26/2017 at 8:09 AM, Nickoli1900 said:

I don't see why it wouldn't work. If both were far enough away from the star they are orbiting, and spaced out enough to avoid a collision due to gravitational pull. I don't see any planet ending catastrophes happening, like an asteroid, that would end life on either planet. Maybe add a 3rd planet kinda like our Jupiter, which pulls in those kind of things to keep your planets safe from those annihilation situations. I dunno, whatever you decide will be best. I really enjoyed Hybridor btw. Gl with your comic.  

Thank you so much! Very delighted to even know you knew the name for it. I consider myself a very unnoticed artist so haha. Thank you for that.

Yeah it SEEMS like it COULD work, though again some extreme weather seems imminent and eclipses I'd guess would happen often (cool concept actually). I will be using the idea now, but the actual science behind it still would be something I'm curious about.

[AlexTheUnicorn]

There's no reason why it wouldn't work. The orbit isn't the issue really so much as the planet's atmosphere. If the two planets are essentially the same size or similar and have achieved a stable orbit then you're golden. 

You just need to make sure there's the "building blocks" there to make life. So, as we're carbon based life forms we need oxygen and water. You also need it to be not too close to the nearest star, or the entire surface would be baked to a crisp, and not too far away either, or else it's much too cold to support life.

Ofcourse, that's assuming all life is like life on Earth. If you're writing in a fictional universe there's no reason you couldn't have your life forms be based off of a different element. Much like the nitrogen-based lifeforms in the movie Evolution (2001) perhaps?