Relevance of Tidal Heating on Large TNOs

Prabal Saxena; Joe Renaud; Wade G. Henning; Martin Jutzi; Terry Hurford

doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2017.11.023

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arXiv · 1706.04682

Relevance of Tidal Heating on Large TNOs

Prabal Saxena·Joe Renaud·Wade G. Henning·Martin Jutzi·Terry Hurford

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Abstract

We examine the relevance of tidal heating for large Trans-Neptunian Objects, with a focus on its potential to melt and maintain layers of subsurface liquid water. Depending on their past orbital evolution, tidal heating may be an important part of the heat budget for a number of discovered and hypothetical TNO systems and may enable formation of, and increased access to, subsurface liquid water. Tidal heating induced by the process of despinning is found to be particularly able to compete with heating due to radionuclide decay in a number of different scenarios. In cases where radiogenic heating alone may establish subsurface conditions for liquid water, we focus on the extent by which tidal activity lifts the depth of such conditions closer to the surface. While it is common for strong tidal heating and long lived tides to be mutually exclusive, we find this is not always the case, and highlight when these two traits occur together.

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Prabal Saxena, Joe Renaud, Wade G. Henning, Martin Jutzi, Terry Hurford. 2017-06-14. Relevance of Tidal Heating on Large TNOs. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2017.11.023

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