Facts about Tidal heating
- 07
Miranda, Uranus's innermost moon, displays extreme geological scarring from ancient tidal heating that fractured its 470-kilometer diameter body into massive canyons extending 20 kilometers deep.
- 06
Pluto's moon Charon experiences tidal heating from its mutual orbital resonance with Pluto, potentially maintaining a subsurface ocean beneath its nitrogen ice cap.
- 05
Mimas, Saturn's moon, generates internal heat through tidal friction despite its small 396-kilometer diameter, potentially sustaining a subsurface water layer beneath its cratered surface.
- 04
Triton, Neptune's largest moon, orbits retrograde and experiences tidal heating that powers nitrogen geysers erupting at temperatures around 38 Kelvin across its icy surface.
- 03
Europa's internal ocean, maintained by tidal heating from Jupiter's gravitational pull, contains more water than all of Earth's oceans combined despite lying beneath a 10-kilometer ice shell.
- 02
Saturn's moon Enceladus maintains a subsurface ocean despite being only 504 kilometers in diameter, sustained by tidal heating from its eccentric orbit around Saturn.
- 01
Jupiter's moon Io experiences tidal heating from orbital resonance with Europa and Ganymede, causing surface temperatures exceeding 1200 Kelvin in volcanic regions.