Tag

Tidal Heating

All articles tagged with #tidal heating

space8 days ago•14 min saved

Mimas Rewrites Its Story: A Young Global Ocean Beneath Icy Craters

A reanalysis of Cassini data reveals Saturn’s moon Mimas hosts a global ocean beneath 20–30 km of ice, likely formed in under 25 million years, inferred from precise libration and periapsis drift rather than direct water detection. The young ocean explains Mimas’s motion better than solid-body models, even though the surface remains heavily cratered and deceptively inactive. This makes Mimas a potential early-stage ocean world, offering new insights into how oceans can emerge under thick shells, while many details (chemistry, depth, persistence) remain uncertain and could be refined by future missions.

via Space Daily|

#cassini #global-ocean #mimas

space-and-astronomy22 days ago•59 min saved

Juno uncovers buried heat beneath Io's volcanic crust

NASA’s Juno spacecraft used its Microwave Radiometer to measure heat beneath Io’s surface for the first time, finding temperatures rise sharply within a few feet of the crust (more than 40°F). The findings suggest a thin, porous surface layer and heat moving through Io’s crust that could result from conduction or cooling lava flows, offering new insights into tidal heating that powers Io’s volcanism and potentially informing heat processes on other worlds with buried oceans; future high-resolution observations could distinguish between conduction and lava-driven heating.

via Yahoo|

#io #io-subsurface-temperature #juno-spacecraft

space22 days ago•37 min saved

Juno uncovers Io's buried heat, hinting at lava flows or rapid subsurface conduction

NASA’s Juno spacecraft, using its Microwave Radiometer, measured Io’s subsurface temperatures for the first time and found a sharp, 40+ degree Fahrenheit rise within feet of the surface. The results from two close flybys (2023–2024) suggest heat moving through Io’s crust by conduction or stemming from buried lava flows, offering a new way to study tidal heating and heat transport on rocky worlds and potentially informing heat dynamics on other moons.

via thebrighterside.news|

#io #juno-mission #microwave-radiometer

science24 days ago•14 min saved

Europa's Hidden Ocean Could Surpass Earth's Seas, Fueled by Jupiter's Tidal Rhythm

Europa, though smaller than Earth’s Moon, may hide a global ocean tens to about 150 km deep beneath an ice shell and could contain more liquid water than all Earth's oceans; the ocean remains liquid due to tidal heating from Jupiter, amplified by the Io–Europa–Ganymede Laplace resonance, plus radiogenic heat and an insulating ice shell. Evidence comes from magnetic induction data and surface geology, and NASA’s Europa Clipper (launched 2024) will fly by 49 times to measure ice thickness, ocean depth, salinity, and possible chemical gradients to assess habitability.

via Space Daily|

#europa #europa-clipper #laplace-resonance

space-exploration1 month ago•120 min saved

Juno Reveals Io's Hidden Heat: Subsurface Clues to a Volcanic Powerhouse

NASA's Juno spacecraft used its Microwave Radiometer to peer beneath Io's surface during late-2023 and early-2024 flybys, uncovering a buried heat signature with temperatures rising several feet below the crust and localized warm pockets. The findings, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, show heat moving through Io's crust by conduction or from cooling lava, driven by Jupiter's tidal forces, and offer insights for understanding volcanism on Earth and subsurface oceans on other icy moons such as Europa and Ganymede.

via Space|

#io #juno #jupiter

space1 month ago•10 min saved

Rogue-Planet Moons Could Harbor Oceans for Billions Without Sunlight

A 2026 modelling study from LMU Munich and collaborators suggests an Earth‑sized moon orbiting a Jupiter‑like rogue planet could maintain surface liquid water for up to about 4.3 billion years without any starlight, if enveloped in a thick (≈100 bar) hydrogen atmosphere and driven by tidal heating—though this relies on favorable assumptions, omits many real‑world complexities, and no such exomoons have been observed yet.

via Space Daily|

#exomoon #hydrogen-atmosphere #liquid-water

space1 month ago•13 min saved

Europa's Hidden Ocean Could Hold More Than Twice Earth's Ocean Water

New evidence from magnetic data, surface geology, and interior models points to a global salty ocean beneath Europa’s ice, potentially containing more than twice Earth's ocean water and kept warm by tidal flexing from Jupiter; the Europa Clipper mission will map ice thickness, ocean depth, and chemistry to assess habitability, though no direct measurements have yet confirmed life or sea depth.

via Space Daily|

#europa #habitability #jupiter

space1 month ago•13 min saved

Europa's Hidden Ocean Could Surpass Earth's Seas, Kept Liquid by Jupiter's Tides

Europa, Jupiter's icy moon, may harbor a global salty ocean beneath its shell—potentially twice Earth's oceans—kept liquid by tidal heating from Jupiter's gravity. Evidence from Galileo's magnetic measurements and NASA's Europa Clipper mission suggests a conductive ocean beneath a likely thick ice shell, with no drilling yet. Clipper will conduct ~50 flybys using radar, magnetic, gravity, and thermal instruments to map the ice, probe the ocean, and assess habitability, not life detection. The ocean's persistence depends on ice thickness, heat transport, and chemistry, making Europa a leading target for understanding habitable worlds beyond Earth.

via Space Daily|

#astrobiology #europa #jupiter

science1 month ago•13 min saved

Starless Rogue-Moon Orbits Could Sustain Long-Lived Subsurface Oceans

A 2025 arXiv modelling study suggests moons bound to planets ejected by supernovae could remain in interstellar space and heat internal oceans via tidal flexing, potentially keeping subsurface oceans for billions of years without sunlight. In simulations, 12–15% of cases yielded heating within the Europa/Enceladus range; surfaces would stay frozen and oceans would be buried, but the internal heat could sustain liquid water. The work is theoretical and depends on model inputs, and no confirmed rogue-planet moons have been observed yet; still, it widens habitable-setting thinking beyond star warmth.

via Space Daily|

#exomoons #habitability #rogue-planets

space2 months ago•11 min saved

Europa's Fresh Surface Hints at a Hidden Ocean

Europa’s surface is unusually crater-free, implying a young, constantly renewed ice crust. Tidal heating from Jupiter sustains internal warmth, likely keeping a global salty ocean beneath the ice; ridges, chaos terrain and possible plumes point to ongoing resurfacing that erases craters. The Europa Clipper and ESA’s JUICE missions will map the ice and probe for direct ocean evidence to test these ideas.

via Space Daily|

#europa #icy-moon #jupiter

space2 months ago•10 min saved

Enceladus' hidden ocean may have stayed warm long enough for life

Enceladus, a ~500-km Saturnian moon, vents water vapour and ice grains from a global salty ocean beneath its ice shell. Cassini data reveal molecular hydrogen—a sign of hydrothermal activity—and 2023 analyses detected phosphates, supplying essential ingredients for life. Modelling suggests tidal heating could keep the ocean warm and chemically active for geological timescales, meaning there could have been a long window for life to emerge—though this is about opportunity, not evidence of life. Proposals for missions to sample the plume or surface exist, but for now the headline is that a tiny moon may hide a long-lived, life-friendly ocean.

via Space Daily|

#astrobiology #enceladus #ocean-world

space5 months ago•75 min saved

Rogue planets' moons may host billions of years of habitability

Astronomers propose that moons orbiting free-floating, starless rogue planets could stay warm enough for liquid water for billions of years thanks to tidal heating and hydrogen-dominated atmospheres that trap heat via collision-induced absorption (CIA). Using radiative-transfer (HELIOS) and chemistry (GGchem) codes, the study shows such exomoons could maintain long-term habitability even without a sun, though the models rely on simplifications (e.g., dry atmospheres, constant gravity) and future work will add clouds and water-vapor effects. This expands the search for life beyond traditional, star‑dependent habitable zones.

via Space|

#exomoons #habitability #hydrogen-atmosphere

space-exploration5 months ago•53 min saved

Dark-world oceans: moons around sunless rogue planets could harbor life for billions of years

New simulations suggest Earth-sized moons orbiting free-floating, starless rogue planets could remain warm enough to keep liquid water on their surfaces for up to 4.3 billion years, thanks to tidal heating and insulating hydrogen atmospheres, potentially expanding habitable environments beyond traditional stellar zones.

via Space|

#exomoon #habitability #liquid-water

space5 months ago•5 min saved

Rogue-Planet Moons Could Harbor Liquid Water Without a Star

Researchers suggest exomoons orbiting rogue planets—worlds ejected from their stars—could sustain liquid water for up to 4.3 billion years if their hydrogen-rich atmospheres trap heat via high-pressure molecular interactions, with tidal heating from the host planet providing the energy, offering a plausible path to habitability without a sun.

via ScienceAlert|

#exomoons #habitability #hydrogen-atmosphere

science10 months ago•3 min saved

Relativity's Role in Unlocking Habitability Around White Dwarfs

New research suggests that planets orbiting white dwarf stars may be more habitable than previously thought due to the effects of Einstein's general relativity, which stabilizes their orbits and prevents excessive tidal heating that would otherwise render them uninhabitable.

via Live Science|

#exoplanets #general-relativity #habitability