Quote:
Originally Posted by m1omg
Gliese 876 d's eccentricity is unknown, but could be as high as 0.22. If that's the case, the planet's tidal buldge cold vary by about 300 meters, thus producing 9-10 times the energy per kg as on Io. NOT 10000-100000 times! |
The above was just 1 significant figure estimate. Now I did an actual calculation assuming star's mass 32 times Jupiter, semi-major axis exactly 3 million km, and eccentricity 0.22. To two sig fig, tidal buldge will vary from 930 meters at perihelion to 250 meters at aphelion -- 680 meters difference, so 46 times energy per kg as Io. I was off by almost an order of magnitude. Still, this is far cry from "10000-100000 times", and smaller eccentricity would result in much smaller het output.