Librations and Interior Structure of the Galilean Satellites

Details Librations and Interior Structure of the Galilean Satellites Librations and Interior Structure of the Galilean Satellites

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p51e1173v&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P51E-1173

Physics

[6218] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Jovian Satellites

Scientific paper

We investigate the influence of the interior structure of the Galilean satellites on their rotation variations (or librations). Since the Galilean satellites are significantly aspherical due to rotation and static tides, Jupiter exerts a gravitational torque on them. In a circular orbit, the long axis of a satellite would always point towards Jupiter and the gravitational torque would be zero. However, the eccentric orbits of the Galilean satellites lead to misalignment of the long axis with the direction to Jupiter and result in non-zero gravitational torques that tend to modify the rotation of the satellites. Since the torque varies with the orbital phase, the main libration period is equal to the orbital period. In a first-order approximation, the libration amplitude is usually calculated by assuming that the satellite reacts rigidly to the gravitational torque. The corresponding amplitudes, expressed as a shift at the surface of the orientation of the long axis with respect to that for the mean rotation rate, decrease with increasing distance from Jupiter from a few hundred meters for Io to about ten meter for Callisto. Internal liquid layers, such as a subsurface ocean, can lead to differential rotation of the solid and liquid layers and to differences of the libration of surface with respect to that for a rigid libration. Here, we present a method to determine the influence of gravitational and pressure interactions between internal layers on the libration of the Galilean satellites. For Io, we show that the liquid core has only a small effect on the surface librations. For Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, the presence of a subsurface ocean can significantly increase the libration amplitude. We also study the effect of the possible existence of two liquid layers in Ganymede and Europa: a subsurface ocean and a liquid core. We quantify the sensitivity of the libration amplitude to the internal structure and assess expected improvements in the interior structure of the Galilean satellites from future libration observations with the joint NASA/ESA Europa Jupiter System Mission.

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