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Comment by bshimmin | Hacker News Reader

For example gravitational forces probably lock the same side of the planet in perpetual daylight, while the other side is in perpetual night.

Should I admit on HN to having watched a Vin Diesel film? Pitch Black, anyone?

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If I remember right Pitch Black wasn't a tidally locked planet, but rather an _extended_ eclipsed caused by the other planets in their stellar system.

Astronomy nerdship aside, I loved Pitch Black. Such a good movie. I haven't watched any of the sequels, though.

The first game that they released, surprisingly for a movie to game adaptation, was also quite good.

That's because Vin Diesel is a gamer and didn't want games starting him to be run-of-the-mill movie tie/cash-ins, so he founded Tigon and tasked them with making good ones.

Fabulously geeky dude, I like his style.

Yes, Escape From Butcher Bay. A gem of game from the first-gen xbox era. Not sure if it holds up, but at the time it was a very high quality release.

I loved the sequel myself.

Pitch Black's planet situation reminded me of Nightfall (Asimov/Silverberg)[0], though there weren't six suns like in the book, and the occurrence of the "night" in the movie seemed to be shorter increments?

[0] - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/99245.Nightfall

Planet rotation is 83 days [1]. So no, no perpetual days or nights on Proxima b.

[1] http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/24/health/proxima-b-centauri-...

83 days is the star's rotation period.

Of course. Vin Diesel movies have their place and are fun. Pitch Black was great. Riddick is a good anti-hero.

You can transform that admission into geek credibility by referencing Asimov's Nightfall, on which Pitch Black was (loosely) based.

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