Relevance of Tidal Heating on Large TNOs

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.

arXiv commentSubmitted to Icarus

References in corpus (31)

• The Pluto system: Initial results from its exploration by New Horizons
• Evidence for a Distant Giant Planet in the Solar System
• Enceladus's measured physical libration requires a global subsurface ocean
• Tidal Evolution of Close-in Extra-Solar Planets
• The Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey - Full Data Release: The orbital structure of the Kuiper belt
• Tidal friction in close-in satellites and exoplanets. The Darwin theory re-visited
• The size, shape, density and ring of the dwarf planet Haumea from a stellar occultation
• Tidally Heated Terrestrial Exoplanets: Viscoelastic Response Models
• Tidal dissipation compared to seismic dissipation: in small bodies, in earths, and in superearths
• Tidal obliquity evolution of potentially habitable planets
• Enceladus's and Dione's floating ice shells supported by minimum stress isostasy
• Bodily tides near spin-orbit resonances
• Numerical simulations of impacts involving porous bodies: I. Implementing sub-resolution porosity in a 3D SPH Hydrocode
• Reorientation of Sputnik Planitia implies a Subsurface Ocean on Pluto
• Tides and the Evolution of Planetary Habitability
• Increased Tidal Dissipation Using Advanced Rheological Models: Implications for Io and Tidally Active Exoplanets
• The Surface of 2003EL61 in the Near Infrared
• Study of the Surface of 2003 EL61: the largest carbon-depleted object in the trans-neptunian belt
• Physical Properties of Trans-Neptunian Object (20000) Varuna
• Complete Tidal Evolution of Pluto-Charon
• Recent Tectonic Activity on Pluto Driven by Phase Changes in the Ice Shell
• How terrestrial planets traverse spin-orbit resonances: A camel goes through a needle's eye
• Tidal dissipation in a homogeneous spherical body. I. Methods
• On a Scattered-Disk Origin for the 2003 El61 Collisional Family - an Example of the Importance of Collisions on the Dynamics of Small Bodies
• Interpreting the Densities of the Kuiper Belt's Dwarf Planets
• The surface composition of large Kuiper belt object 2007 OR10
• Bodily tides near the 1:1 spin-orbit resonance. Correction to Goldreich's dynamical model
• The Formation of Pluto's Low Mass Satellites
• Tectonic Activity on Pluto After the Charon-Forming Impact
• A Search for Distant Solar System Bodies in the Region of Sedna
• A Common Origin for Ridge-and-Trough Terrain on Icy Satellites by Sluggish Lid Convection

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Increased Tidal Dissipation Using Advanced Rheological Models: Implications for Io and Tidally Active Exoplanets
• Tidal insights into rocky and icy bodies: An introduction and overview
• Moderate D/H Ratios in Methane Ice on Eris and Makemake as Evidence of Hydrothermal or Metamorphic Processes in Their Interiors: Geochemical Analysis
• Tidal Dissipation in Dual-Body, Highly Eccentric, and Non-synchronously Rotating Systems: Applications to Pluto-Charon and the Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1e
• On the structure and long-term evolution of ice-rich bodies
• Charon: A brief history of tides
• The Albedos, Sizes, Colors and Satellites of Dwarf Planets Compared with Newly Measured Dwarf Planet 2013 FY27
• Thermal-orbital evolution of Eris
• The Tidal-Thermal Evolution of the Pluto-Charon System