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Scientists believe that one of the most likely places to find life within our solar system could be on the moons of Jupiter. Scientists recently announced that Jupiter’s moons are hotter than they should be, considering they are 483 million miles from the sun. Previously, scientists believed that Jupiter provided additional heat to the moons, but now researchers have a new hypothesis.
Scientists now believe that Jupiter’s moons are warming each other through tidal warming. The new model looks at warming from moon to moon and has found that the gravitational interaction between the moons could cause more tidal warming than the result of orbiting Jupiter. Scientist Hamish Hay from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory says it’s surprising that moons cause so much warming despite being significantly smaller than Jupiter.
Hay says the moons would not be expected to create such a large tidal response. The researchers hope the discovery will help astronomers learn more about the general evolution of the Jovian lunar system. Researchers know that there are at least 79 known Jovian moons so far.
At least four of those moons are warm enough to hide oceans of liquid water beneath their surfaces. Io has more than 400 active volcanoes. Tidal heating works through a process known as tidal resonance in which the moons essentially vibrate at certain frequencies, which is a phenomenon that occurs everywhere with water, including the Earth.
Resonance creates significantly more heating, according to Hay. Scientists point out that when you push something at the correct frequency, the oscillations get bigger and bigger, just like when you push a swing. By calculating these natural frequencies for the moons, the researchers found that the resonance of Jupiter’s tides alone does not match the size of the oceans believed to be below the surface of some of the moons. Scientists continue research with the ultimate goal of understanding the source of all heat and its influence on the evolution and habitability of worlds throughout the solar system.
