Related papers: Tides on Europa: the membrane paradigm
Polar regions are covered by sea ice, which can be seen as a thin solid elastic sheet with heterogeneous mechanical properties. The dynamics of deformation of a floating solid sheet are primarly governed by gravity, water density, and the…
One of the clearest but unresolved questions for Europa is the thickness of its icy shell. Europa's surface is resplendent with geological features that bear on this question, and ultimately on its interior, geological history, and…
Tidal interaction governs the redistribution of angular momentum in close binary stars and planetary systems and determines the systems evolution towards the possible equilibrium state. Turbulent friction acting on the equilibrium tide in…
The efficiency of tidal dissipation provides a zeroth-order link to a planet's physical properties. For super-Earth and sub-Neptune planets in the range $R_{\oplus}\lesssim R_p \lesssim 4 R_{\oplus}$, particularly efficient dissipation…
We present a new planetary structure/thermal evolution model, designed for use in problems that couple orbital dynamics with planetary structure. We first benchmark our structural/thermal evolution calculations against the \texttt{MESA}…
Europa's surface composition and evidence for cryovolcanic activity can provide insight into the properties and composition of the subsurface ocean, allowing the evaluation of its potential habitability. One promising avenue for revealing…
Existence of subsurface oceans on the satellites of the giant planets and Trans-Neptunian objects has been predicted for some time. Oceans on icy worlds exert a considerable influence on the dynamics of the ice-ocean system and, because of…
The impact heat accumulated during the late stage of planetary accretion can melt a significant part or even the entire mantle of a terrestrial body, giving rise to a global magma ocean. [...] Assuming fractional crystallization of the…
We simulate the nonlinear hydrodynamical evolution of tidally-excited inertial waves in convective envelopes of rotating stars and giant planets modelled as spherical shells containing incompressible, viscous and adiabatically-stratified…
M type stars are good targets in the search for habitable extrasolar planets. Because of their low effective temperatures, the habitable zone of M stars is very close to the star itself. For planets close to their stars, tidal heating plays…
Chen et al. (Eur. J. Mech. B/Fluids 78, pp. 88-105, 2019) recently proposed a two-dimensional continuum model for linear gravity waves propagating in ice-covered seas. It is based on a two-layer formulation where the ice cover is viewed as…
Immersed boundary methods are extensively used for simulations of dynamic solid objects interacting with fluids due to their computational efficiency and modelling flexibility compared to body-fitted grid methods. However, thin geometries,…
The evolution of Europa's water-product exosphere over its 85-hour day, based on current models, has not been shown to exhibit any diurnal asymmetries. Here we simulate Europa's exosphere using a 3-D Monte Carlo routine including, for the…
We study the interaction between stellar irradiation and tidal heating in gaseous planets with short orbital periods. The intentionally simplified atmospheric model we employ makes the problem analytically tractable and permits the…
It is debated whether close-in giant planets can form in-situ and if not, which mechanisms are responsible for their migration. One of the observable tests for migration theories is the current value of the angle between the stellar…
(abridged) The calculation of the thermal stratification in the superadiabatic layers of stellar models with convective envelopes is a long standing problem of stellar astrophysics, and has a major impact on predicted observational…
Due to tidal interactions in the Earth-Moon system, the spin of the Earth slows down and the Moon drifts away. This recession of the Moon is now measured with great precision, but it has been realized, more than fifty years ago, that simple…
The orbits of short-period exoplanets are sculpted by tidal dissipation. However, the mechanisms and associated efficiencies of these tidal interactions are poorly constrained. We present robust constraints on the tidal quality factors of…
Seismology was developed on Earth and shaped our model of the Earth's interior over the 20th century. With the exception of the Philae lander, all in situ extraterrestrial seismological effort to date was limited to other terrestrial…
Mercury is entrapped in a 3:2 resonance: it rotates on its axis three times for every two revolutions it makes around the Sun. It is generally accepted that this is due to the large value of the eccentricity of its orbit. However, the…