NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Europa, tidally heated oceans, and habitable zones around giant planetsTidal dissipation in the satellites of a giant planet may provide sufficient heating to maintain an environment favorable to life on the satellite surface or just below a thin ice layer. Europa could have a liquid ocean which may occasionally receive sunlight through cracks in the overlying ice shell. In such a case, sufficient solar energy could reach liquid water that organisms similar to those found under Antarctic ice could grow. In other solar systems, larger satellites with more significant heat flow could represent environments that are stable over an order of eons and in which life could perhaps evolve. A zone around a giant planet is defined in which such satellites could exist as a tidally-heated habitable zone. This zone can be compared to the habitable zone which results from heating due to the radiation of a central star. In this solar system, this radiatively-heated habitable zone contains the earth.
Document ID
19880032690
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Reynolds, Ray T.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Mckay, Christopher P.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Kasting, James F.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 13, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1987
Publication Information
Publication: Advances in Space Research
Volume: 7
Issue: 5, 19
ISSN: 0273-1177
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Exploration
Accession Number
88A19917
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

Available Downloads

There are no available downloads for this record.
No Preview Available