tidal stresses tagged posts

Seismic activity could give scientists a read on the thickness of the ice encasing the moon and the oceans believed to lie beneath. Tidal stresses may be causing constant icequakes on Saturn’s sixth largest moon Enceladus, a world of interest in the search for life beyond Earth, according to a new study. A better understanding of seismic activity could reveal what’s under the moon’s icy crust and provide clues to the habitability of its ocean.

In this spacecraft image of Phobos, red arrows indicate a chain of small craters whose origin researchers were able to trace back to a primary impact at the large crater known as Grildrig. Credit: ESA/Mars Express, modified by Nayak & Asphaug; copyrighted image

Some of the mysterious grooves on Mars’ moon Phobos are the result of debris ejected by impacts eventually falling back onto the surface to form linear chains of craters, according to a new study. One set of grooves on Phobos are thought to be stress fractures resulting from the tidal pull of Mars. The new study addresses another set of grooves that do not fit that explanation. “These grooves cut across the tidal fields, so they require another mechanism...

This enhanced color view of Enceladus shows much of the southern hemisphere and includes the south polar terrain at the bottom of the image. Scientists at the University of Chicago and Princeton University have published a new study describing the process that drives and sustains this moon of Saturn’s long-lived geysers. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

The Cassini spacecraft has observed geysers erupting on Saturn’s moon Enceladus since 2005, but the process that drives and sustains these eruptions has remained a mystery. Now, scientists at the Uni of Chicago and Princeton University have pinpointed a mechanism by which cyclical tidal stresses exerted by Saturn can drive Enceladus’s long-lived eruptions.

Enceladus, which probably has an ocean underlying its icy surface, has someho...