Triton's eruptions analogous to Comet Halley's?

Details Triton's eruptions analogous to Comet Halley's? Triton's eruptions analogous to Comet Halley's?

Nov 1992

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992adspr..12..133w&link_type=abstract

(Planetary studies; Proceedings of Symposium 4 and the Topical Meeting of the Interdisciplinary Scientific Commission B /Meeting

Biology

1

Halley'S Comet, Triton, Volcanology, Exobiology, Planetary Geology

Scientific paper

It is hypothesized that Triton's geysers are analogous to the remnant activity of Comet Halley, whose outbursts producing a particulate coma are persisting out beyond 12 AU Halley's outbursts are understood as resulting from inward freezing of a subsurface lake or sea that's maintained at greater than 10 m depth via metabolic energy release. Cracking of the ice due to thermal expansion forces generates sporadic emissions of H2O and other gases. Analogous activity on Triton is a manifestation of internal freezing of an interior sea under a km or so of ice. This sea at the present epoch is quite separate from the interior liquid ocean, expected to be maintained at greater than 100 km deep by radiogenic heating. The near-surface sea is maintained also by chemical or metabolic energy and sporadically emits gases and condensates through cracks induced during its freezing. Emissions through the ice cover on both comets and Triton would drive surface geology, thus enabling access to new nutrients and trace elements that may be vital for subterranean biology. Triton's biology would be a relic from its tidal heating phase, when the interior was liquid below a 1-2 km frozen lithosphere.

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