Ring torque on Janus and the melting of Enceladus

Details Ring torque on Janus and the melting of Enceladus Ring torque on Janus and the melting of Enceladus

May 1984

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1984icar...58..159l&link_type=abstract

(IAU, COSPAR, NASA, et al., Colloquium on Natural Satellites, 77th, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, July 5-9, 1983) Icarus (ISSN

Mathematics

Logic

44

Enceladus, Janus, Orbital Mechanics, Planetary Orbits, Satellite Surfaces, Saturn Rings, Angular Momentum, Eccentric Orbits, Kinetic Heating, Planetary Geology, Resonance, Tides, Torque, Saturn, Satellites, Janus, Enceladus, Rings, Tourqe, Melting, Dione, Surface, Resurfacing, Voyager 2, Observations, Geology, Calculations, Heating, Radioactivity, Decay, Tidal Effects, Resonance, Evolution, Orbits, Motion, 1980S1, Theoretical Studies, Angular Momentum, Craters, Eccentricity, Interiors

Scientific paper

Voyager 2 images show parts of Enceladus' surface to be very smooth, lacking craters down to the resolution limit of 4 km. This absence of craters indicates geologically recent resurfacing, probably due to internal melting. However, calculations of current heating mechanisms, including radioactive decay and tidal heating due to Enceladus' resonance with Dione, yield heating rates too small to cause melting. The orbital mean motion of Janus (1980S1) is slightly less than twice that of Enceladus and, according to theoretical calculations, is currently decreasing as Janus' orbit evolves outward due to resonant torques from Saturn's ring. The authors discuss a mechanism which, although requiring a priori unlikely events, appear to have the potential of easing, if not solving, several of these problems simultaneously.

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