Enceladus may have rolled over

[CalliArcale]

This one's for you, polarwander. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />Saturn's moon Enceladus may have rolled over <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>I still can't see that this makes any real progress towards explaining the amount of observed heating<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />No, it doesn't. If I'm understanding the article correctly, it's more about the *consequences* of heating than possible sources of the heating. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[silylene old]

This paper primarily addressed that the result of a non-spherically symmetrical mass distribution (the diapir) can be a cause of polar wander. Thus we now know that polar wander is a good indication that the mass is not spherically symmetrical.<br /><br />The paper did not determine how much tidal heating could result from the range of mass distribution possibilities in a non-spherically symmetrical body.<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>IIRC, Borman had explored some of the possibilities related to the diapir theory over at the main Enceladus thread.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Borman and several others did propose several very interesting concepts in this thread, and the discussion and exploration of these concepts was excellent.<br /><br />I suggested here that assymmetric mass distribution could actually be the cause of localized heating. I find the results to date on assymmetric mass-distribution induced polar wandering quite encouraging, and I eagerly await whether more simulation on tidal heating with assymmetric distributions will fully confirm my hypothesis. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>