Quote:
Just the way you can rub your hands together on a cold day to warm them up, the process of frictional heating can warm up an object in space. We see this through Jupiter’s interactions with Io, and now, astronomers report, that’s the same process that’s causing geysers of ice to erupt on Saturn’s moon Enceladus.
New research from the University of California, Santa Cruz, proposes that the gravitational interaction between Enceladus and Saturn causes the moon to flex as it orbits. Enceladus’ orbit is eccentric, varying its distance to Saturn, and it’s this eccentricity that creates the flexing. The faults on Enceladus to rub together, producing enough heat to transform solid ice into plumes of water vapour and ice crystals.
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Same process as Jupiter's interaction with Io?
guess they forgot the
How many watts to "boil" water ?
eccentricity??? Now I read somewhere bodies moving on eccentric orbits displayed some unusual properties.
surely they couldn't be saying they may have a common cause for both phenomena? Are they? Is it tidal flexing, radioactive core maybe mixed in with some "organic stuff" or indeed the same as Io?
Interesting discussion
HERE