Heating and melting of small icy satellites by the decay of Al-26

Details Heating and melting of small icy satellites by the decay of Al-26 Heating and melting of small icy satellites by the decay of Al-26

May 1990

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1990apj...355..281p&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 355, May 20, 1990, p. 281-286. Research supported by NASA and DFG.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

12

Aluminum 26, Icy Satellites, Planetary Evolution, Astronomical Models, Chondrites, Melting, Solar System

Scientific paper

The effect of radiogenic heating due to Al-26 on the thermal evolution of small icy satellites is studied. The object is to find the extent of internal melting as a function of the satellite radius and of the initial Al-26 abundance. The implicit assumption, based on observations of young stars, is that planet and satellite accretion occurred on a time scale of about 10 to the 6th yr (comparable with the lifetime of Al-26. The icy satellites are modeled as spheres of initially amorphous ice, with chondritic abundances of K-40, Th-232, U-235, and U-238, corresponding to an ice/dust mass ratio of 1. Evolutionary calculations are carried out, spanning 4.5 x 10 to the 9th yr, for different combinations of the two free parameters. Heat transfer by subsolidus convection is neglected for these small satellites. The main conclusion is that the initial Al-26 abundance capable of melting icy bodies of satellite size to a significant extent is more than 10 times lower than that prevailing in the interstellar medium (or that inferred from the Ca-Al rich inclusions of the Allende meteorite, about 7 x 10 to the -7th by mass).

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