Moons of jupiter tidal heating8/16/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() This sim demonstrates a scenario predicted by some astronomers : a moon orbiting a gas giant outside of its star’s habitable zone. We even made a new simulation to show it off: A Tidally Heated Habitable Moon. With the improvements in Update 25, we’re now much more confident in our tidal heating model. It also calculates how much heating is produced by tidal friction, and sends that information into the energy flow calculations that control the object’s temperature. If these forces are strong enough, the simulation produces fragments to simulate Roche fragmentation tearing the object apart. We use these calculations to determine where each object will move next, and how fast, but we can also use them to calculate the strength of the tidal forces inside the object. How Does Tidal Heating Work in Universe Sandbox?Īs the simulation runs, Universe Sandbox is constantly calculating the gravitational forces pulling on every object. But if the tidal forces change over time- say, because the object is spinning, or its orbit is non-circular (elliptical)- all this squishing and un-squishing will create friction inside the object, which will add heat energy. Smaller tidal forces will leave the object intact, and the “squishing” of the object’s spherical shape is usually too small to see. In real life, astronomers believe this tidal heating is the source of energy for Io’s many volcanoes. Io’s eccentric orbit creates tidal friction inside the moon, and the graph of Tidal Power on the left shows how the incoming rate of tidal energy changed over time. Jupiter’s moon Io orbiting the gas giant in a simulation with just Jupiter and its moons. If the tidal forces are strong enough, they can even rip an object apart through a process called Roche fragmentation. This difference, called the tidal force, can stretch the Moon out of its normally spherical shape. For example, the strength of Earth’s gravitational pull on the Moon is stronger on the side of the Moon that’s facing the Earth than on the far side of the Moon. The force of gravity depends on the distance between objects. It may not be as flashy as other heating sources, like supernovas or lasers, but tidal heating can create some unexpected and interesting effects, and even determine the habitability of a planet or moon!Īs usual, it all comes back to gravity. Now that we’re more confident in our tidal heating simulation, we thought that for this ScienceLog, we’d dive a little deeper into tidal heating, where it comes from, and how it works in Universe Sandbox. We traced this unusual behavior back to some errors in our tidal heating calculations, and then we fixed those bugs while we prepared the energy flow tools for Update 25. Tidal heating has been a part of Universe Sandbox for some time, but after the release of our new Surface Grids feature in Update 24, we noticed that tidal heating wasn’t changing the temperature of planets the way we expected. Unlike some of the other heat sources, like stars or impacts, tidal heating originates inside the object itself. If you look at the sources of energy in a simulation, listed in the Energy Flow section of the object’s Surface tab, you’ll see Tidal Power listed. Our first ScienceLog explained how the flow of energy into and out of an object is responsible for heating or cooling the object. Tidal forces from the Earth’s gravity rip fragments from the Moon, tearing it apart. Simulation in which the Moon orbits way too close to the Earth.
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