Would not the extrasolar planet, Gliese 581c, be in a tidal lock (like our moon) around its red dwarf star?

Question

I ask this because it is supposedly only 0.021 AU (is this accurate?) away from the Gliese 581. Is Gliese 581 in Aquarius or Libra?

Answer 1

From the AP article today:
- the prevailing thought is that the planet is not rotating and has one face always to its sun, but they are not sure.
- it is in Libra

Answer 2

Not necessarily. Gliese 581, could simply not be rotating anymore. This would mean that only one side of it faces it's Sun at all times.Considering this, it is very improbable that this planet has a magnetic field, since they are generated by moving material, therefore it would get fried with radiation. It is in Libra, and 120 trillion miles or 20.5 light years from Earth

Answer 3

The reason why our moon is in a tidal lock around the Earth is because of the collision that created approx. 4 billion years ago and that planet that collided with the Earth came at such a off set angle. Gliese 581 is in the constellation Libra

Answer 4

Someone mentioned that it's not rotating. The author had it right with the term tidal lock - an object in tidal lock is still rotating, but it's rotation is aligned to its orbit in such a way that it always presents approximately the same face to the object around which it is orbiting. Our moon is a good example - we always see basically the same face, but in relation to the sun, it is rotating - that's why we see phases of the moon.

Answer 5

I bet it would.
Someone should write a science fiction story about a civilization on such a planet. A series of stories. And some fantasy books about a pre-industrial culture on a planet where the Sun never moves from its spot in the sky and you can only see stars from the dark side.