Lava Oceans of Exoplanets ⚡ экспресс
Lava planets have a molten dayside due to stellar irradiation. Tidal heating from orbital eccentricities of just a few percent (maintained by outer companions) can create deep magma oceans even beneath a solid surface. The multi-mode ocean response to tidal forcing, including a shoreline at the day-night terminator and parameterized viscous friction, leads to wave interference that produces a spatially non-uniform and highly time-variable thermal map of the dayside. Hot spots wander east and west of the substellar point, and thermal light curves exhibit aperiodic outbursts within and between orbits. Tidal heat is removed by a combination of liquid, mushy, and solid-state convection in the mantle. For Earth-sized planets with periods under a day, the entire mantle could be tidally melted.
A planet whose orbit is a little stretched dives closer to its star each pass, then backs away. The varying gravity heats it up, solid rocks melt, becoming an ocean of lava.
On the night side, a frozen crust acts as a shore. Tidal waves crash against it, collide, and spawn wandering hot spots. As a result, the planet’s glow flickers erratically, like a candle flame. Waves can rise several kilometers high—slow-moving stone ridges crawling across the scorching expanse.
🎯 The temperature of these lava oceans is higher than in a smelting furnace: around 3000°C.
🎬 Lava worlds like Mustafar from Star Wars turn out even more turbulent than in fiction, thanks to tides.