Tidal heating is the major source of heat in the outer Solar System. Because of its strong tidal interaction with Jupiter and the other Galilean Satellites, Io is incredibly volcanically active. We ...

If future missions confirm sustained heat flow at both poles, Enceladus would strengthen its position as one of the more accessible environments for detecting extraterrestrial life within the Solar ...

"Tidal heating plays an important role in the heating and orbital evolution of celestial bodies," said Alex Hayes, professor of astronomy. "It provides the warmth necessary to form and sustain ...

Some white dwarfs in rapid binary orbits are far hotter and larger than theory predicts. Researchers found that powerful tidal forces between them generate enough heat to inflate their sizes and ...

New research shows that Jupiter's moons may be keeping each other warm thanks to the effects of gravity. The tidal forces each moon applies to the others are keeping them warmer than they would ...

The shape of the moon deviates from a simple sphere in ways that scientists have struggled to explain. A new study by researchers at UC Santa Cruz shows that most of the moon’s overall shape can be ...

What is the habitability potential on Saturn’s moon, Enceladus? This is what a recent study published in The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated a ...

Astronomers searching for rocky planets that could support life in other solar systems should look outside, as well as within, the so-called “habitable zone,” University of Arizona planetary ...

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Existence of subsurface oceans on the satellites of the giant planets and Trans-Neptunian objects has been predicted for some time. Oceans on icy worlds exert a considerable influence on the dynamics ...

Astronomers have their fingers crossed that within the haul of data collected by NASA's Kepler mission, which has already detected nearly 3,000 possible exoplanets, hide the signatures of the very ...