The term ‘Eyeball Planet’ is the name given to a theoretical exoplanet that has extraordinary and hostile climatic conditions mainly due to the fact that it is locked with its star by tidal forces.

In such a planet one half is always faced towards the star and so the climate is extremely hot, and the other half is always in the dark so there is a very low temperature almost frozen.

This arrangement makes for an interesting divide between the two regions with a ‘biological comforts zone’ or a ‘habitable corridor’ where temperatures might indeed allow for life forms in between the two.

The term “Eyeball planet” is derived from the look of the planet having the day side as a hot ‘pupil’ surrounded by a much cooler ‘iris’ and the night side is referred to as the ‘eye lid’.

Although still only a hypothesis, Eyeball Planets interest scientists since they push the limits of human’s knowledge about the variety of environments which may exist within planets.