Related papers: Enceladus's Tidal Heating
The habitable zone for exomoons with Earth-like properties is a non-trivial manifold, compared to that of Earth-like exoplanets. The presence of tidal heating, eclipses and planetary illumination in the exomoon energy budget combine to…
Electromagnetic (EM) sounding can constrain the electrical structure of Enceladus and, in turn, the salinity of its ocean and the porosity, fluid content, and thermal state of its hydrothermally active core. Here, we assess the feasibility…
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…
Body tides reveal information about planetary interiors and affect their evolution. Most models to compute body tides rely on the assumption of a spherically-symmetric interior. However, several processes can lead to lateral variations of…
Assuming our Solar System as typical, exomoons may outnumber exoplanets. If their habitability fraction is similar, they would thus constitute the largest portion of habitable real estate in the Universe. Icy moons in our Solar System, such…
The population of giant planets on short-period orbits can potentially be explained by some flavours of high-eccentricity migration. In this paper we investigate one such mechanism involving "secular chaos", in which secular interactions…
Tidal dissipation in star-planet systems can occur through various mechanisms, among which is the elliptical instability. This acts on elliptically deformed equilibrium tidal flows in rotating fluid planets and stars, and excites inertial…
We perform numerical simulations of the TRAPPIST-1 system of seven exoplanets orbiting a nearby M dwarf, starting with a previously suggested stable configuration. The long-term stability of this configuration is confirmed, but the motion…
Short period (<50 days) low-mass (<10Mearth) exoplanets are abundant and the few of them whose radius and mass have been measured already reveal a diversity in composition. Some of these exoplanets are found on eccentric orbits and are…
Since the discovery of an ice particle plume erupting from the south polar terrain on Saturn's moon Enceladus, the geophysical mechanisms driving its activity have been the focus of substantial scientific research. The pattern and…
By means of high resolution hydrodynamical, three-dimensional calculations with nested-meshes, we evaluate the eccentricity reached by a low-mass, luminous planet embedded in an inviscid disc with constant thermal diffusivity and subjected…
Europa's icy surface likely overlies an ocean, but the ice thickness is not known. Here we model the temporal growth of a Europan shell of pure ice subject to varying ice-ocean heat fluxes, ice rheologies, and internal heating rates. Both…
From estimates of the near-surface heat capacity of planets it is shown that the thermal time scale is larger than the orbital period in the presence of a global ocean that is well-mixed to a depth of 100 m, or of an atmosphere with a…
Much attention has been given to the climate dynamics and habitable boundaries of synchronously rotating planets around low mass stars. However, other rotational states are possible, particularly when higher eccentricity orbits can be…
We calculate the excitation and dissipation of low-frequency tidal oscillations in uniformly rotating solar-type stars. For tidal frequencies smaller than twice the spin frequency, inertial waves are excited in the convective envelope and…
Traditionally stellar radiation has been the only heat source considered capable of determining global climate on long timescales. Here we show that terrestrial exoplanets orbiting low-mass stars may be tidally heated at high enough levels…
Observational data from the Cassini spacecraft are used to obtain a chemical model of ocean water on Enceladus. The model indicates that Enceladus' ocean is a Na-Cl-CO3 solution with an alkaline pH of ~11-12. The dominance of aqueous NaCl…
During the early phase of in-spiral of a binary system, the tidal heating of a compact object due to its companion plays a significant role in the determination of the orbital evolution of the binary. The phenomenon depends crucially on the…
Tidal interactions influence the orbital motions of binary star systems and extrasolar planets alike. Tides also affect stellar and planetary rotation rates. We demonstrate that in addition to altering spin synchronization and…
The potential of tidal disruption of stars to probe otherwise quiescent supermassive black holes cannot be exploited, if their dynamics is not fully understood. So far, the observational appearance of these events has been derived from…