Europa, tidally heated oceans, and habitable zones around giant planets

• Main Authors: Reynolds, Ray T., Mckay, Christopher P., Kasting, James F.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1987
• Subjects: 91; Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19880032690

Tidal 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.