Other
Scientific paper
Jul 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dda....38.0302m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DDA meeting #38, #3.02
Other
Scientific paper
The heating in Enceladus in an equilibrium resonant configuration with other saturnian satellites can be estimated independently of the physical properties of Enceladus. Our results update the values obtained for the equilibrium tidal heating found by Lissauer et al. (1984) and Peale (2003). We find that equilibrium tidal heating cannot account for the heat that is observed to be coming from Enceladus, and current heating rates are even less for conventional estimates of the Love number for Enceladus. Even allowing for a much larger dynamic Love number, as can occur in viscoelastic models (Ross and Schubert, 1989), the equilibrium tidal heating is less than the heat observed to be coming from Enceladus.
One resolution is that the tidal equilibrium is unstable and that the system oscillates about equilibrium. Yoder (1981) suggested that Enceladus might oscillate about equilibrium if the Q of Enceladus is stress dependent. An alternate suggestion was made by Ojakangas and Stevenson (1986), who emphasized the possible temperature dependence of Q. In these models Enceladus would now be releasing heat stored during a recent high eccentricity phase. However, we have shown that the Ojakangas and Stevenson model does not produce oscillations for parameters appropriate for Enceladus.
Other low-order resonance configurations are possible for the saturnian satellites in the past. These include the 3:2 Mimas-Enceladus and the 3:4 Enceladus-Tethys resonances. The latter resonance has no equilibrium because the orbits are diverging, and the former has an equilibrium heating rate of only 0.48 GW. So equilibrium heating at past resonances is no more successful at explaining past resurfacing events than equilibrium heating is at explaining the present activity.
Meyer Jennifer
Wisdom Jeffrey
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