Physics
Scientific paper
Oct 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011epsc.conf.1050b&link_type=abstract
EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011, held 2-7 October 2011 in Nantes, France. http://meetings.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2011, p.1050
Physics
Scientific paper
We analyze craters on Enceladus to constrain the thermal and physical evolution of the satellite. High resolution topography indicates that craters as small as 10 km in diameter are relaxed by 85±15%. Simulations of crater relaxation indicate that producing such high relaxation fractions over the age of the Solar System requires heat fluxes substantially greater than 200 mWm-2 if a nominal 70 K surface temperature (i.e., Enceladus' solar equilibrium temperature) and ice I rheology is assumed. If a thermally isolating regolith (perhaps due, in part, to in-falling plume material) increases the effective surface temperature, required heat fluxes are decreased, though heat fluxes were likely still in excess of 100 mWm-2. Such high heat fluxes in Enceladus' cratered terrain further illustrate the complex, spatially heterogeneous thermal history of the satellite, which we continue to quantitatively constrain through a comparison of detailed mapping and numerical simulations [1].
Bland Michael T.
McKinnon William B.
Singer Kelsi N.
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