Can Planets In Roller Coaster Orbits Be Habitable?

bump.

Professor Von Braun and his team couldn't very well publish their results before they had them, now could they?
And once you have them why wait?

Earth gets is 'seasons' from axial tilt.

In theory a whole world can have 'seasons' from the ellipse of its orbit. At its furthest point from its star it would be 'winter' at its closest approach it would be 'summer'.

Most likely the 'year' of the planet would range from Ice age conditions in winter to Desertification and tropical conditions at the poles in summer.

If its an earth-like planet around a massive gas giant like Saturn or Jupiter then you have a mighty heat sink nearby. During the closest approach to the star the planet (The Gas Giant) would get heated, during winter it would radiate heat. Any moon (our hypothetical habitable planet) most likely would suffer far less from the orbital difference, being heated by its giant parent.

Since it is in orbit around this gas giant, it would not get as hot in 'summer' as it would orbit into the shadow of its parent planet, cooling each 'month' around its parent.

Most life we have on earth most likely could not survive the extremes. However life could, and most likely we could.

We live in extreme areas like Wisconsin where in the summer it pretty much boils and in winter it freezes. We have technology to heat our homes and cool our homes.