Based on what we know, is tidal locking a possible detriment to life on another planet? if so this could be an issue with many planets around the habitable zones of red dwarfs, since they must be closer to the host star.
Not necessarily, some believe that life could exist in the area between the light and dark sides where temperatures would possibly be milder.
Particularly as there would probably be some libration so that the twilight region got some variation in it’s lighting.
I’d also think that the sun side should be able to support light if the planet were far enough from the sun so that it wasn’t exceedingly hot. One problem might be the weather with constant winds. None of that would likely be a problem to any life in deep enough oceans.
Don’t pretty much all planetary atmospheres, including ours, have pretty much constant winds? Are you saying the winds would be very much stronger on a tidally locked planet? Why should that be?
It’s expected they’d be stronger, yes. The part of the planet that’s constantly at “high noon” will be the hottest and you’d have constant uplift of air at that point. On the exact opposite side of the planet would be the coldest point on the planet and you’d have constant downdraft. So on a tidally locked planet the winds would work like a conveyer belt. Rising on the hot side to flow at high altitude to the dark side then sinking and flowing back to the light side at ground level. The winds would be constant and possibly stronger than what we have on Earth though we don’t know for sure yet.
Several articles I’ve read suggested that the problem with tidal lock to the sun is that the volatiles would pile up and freeze on the unlit side of the planet. similarly, any water or other volatiles would evaporate in the noon area due to accumulated heat from the sun. Note how hot it can get by noon in a tropical area, note the extreme cold in the very limited polar areas with reduced sunshine (or even how fast it cools off on a clear night when the sun goes down). The extreme cold in the Earth’s polar areas is moderated by seawater and air currents flowing from nearby areas still getting sunlight, and seasonal exposure to full sunlight. What would be the effect in a complete hemisphere of perpetual darkness?
The theory as mentioned above is that maybe the twilight areas would have the moderate climate. The question is whether the atmosphere would not freeze onto the far side.
IIRC Dole’s Habitable Planets For Man, the original reference source, puts the lower limit of sun size/type at the point where tidal lock is likely. The only exception he suggested was a moon tidal-locked to a larger companion instead f the sun.