5 ms·

I think the explanation is wrong: wikipedia offers a completely different explanation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

by anlsh 5mo ago

I think the explanation is wrong: wikipedia offers a completely different explanation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking. Planets can become tidally locked to the sun- mercury is. Probably the timescale required for the other planets is just much longer EDIT: Apparently mercury isn't actually tidally locked to the sun, TIL

willis936 5mo ago
I don't see how my ELI5 disagrees with the wikipedia article.
- anlsh 5mo ago
  wikipedia's explanation works for uniform bodies, yours doesn't. And since tidal bulges seem to be symmetric, there's no away to explain away the deformation as making one side heavier
  - willis936 5mo ago
    I don't think their explanation works for uniform bodies.