![]() ![]() While Pluto may have experienced ancient tectonic deformation, we do not anticipate seeing the kind of young, deformed surfaces seen at Triton. In contrast, Pluto is unlikely to be experiencing significant tidal heating. Triton probably experienced significant tidal heating in the past, as. NASA said the melting was probably due to tidal heating that began when Neptune captured Triton, which could have left the satellite liquid for at least 1 billion years. ![]() In our view, Triton's geological activity is driven by obliquity tides, which arise because of its inclination. Its surface has various ridges, created during alternating cycles of thawing and freezing. Alone of all the major Solar System satellites, Triton may have an obliquity near 100°. Both bounds can be satisfied with an ocean temperature approximate to 240 K for our nominal temperature-viscosity relationship, suggesting the presence of an antifreeze such as NH3. Requiring convection places an upper bound on the ice shell viscosity, while the requirement for yielding imposes a lower bound. For a 300 km thick ice shell, the estimated ocean heat production rate (approximate to 0.3 TW) is capable of producing surface yielding and mobile-lid convection. However, Triton's high inclination likely causes a significant (approximate to 0.7 degrees) obliquity, resulting in large heat fluxes due to tidal dissipation in any subsurface ocean. Tritons eccentric post-capture orbit would have also resulted in tidal heating of its interior, which could have kept Triton fluid for a billion years. Radiogenic heating is sufficient to maintain a long-lived ocean beneath a conductive ice shell, but insufficient to cause convective deformation and yielding at the surface. Neptunes moon Triton was probably captured into an eccentric orbit around Neptune early on, leading to intensive tidal heating, with consequent outgassing. Neptune's moon Triton was probably captured into an eccentric orbit around Neptune early on, leading to intensive tidal heating, with consequent outgassing to form an atmosphere. Assuming Triton was captured early in Solar System history, the bulk of the energy released during capture will have been lost, and cannot be responsible for its present-day activity. The orbits of Miranda, Ariel and Umbriel around Uranus may have been such in the past as to heat those satellites enough to cause melting and volcanic resurfacing. We investigate the origins of Triton's deformed and young surface. Even if Enceladus doesnt have a full subsurface ocean like Europa, what could be warming the water to a liquid. ![]()
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