Astronomy
The Role of Tidal Heating in Shaping Icy Moon Geology
Quick fact
Enceladus, a small moon of Saturn, emits geysers of water vapor and ice from its south pole—a process powered by tidal heating that creates a plume extending hundreds of kilometers into space.
Why this is interesting
You've heard of Earth's volcanoes, but what if a world's favorite heat source isn't a molten core, but the gravitational squeeze of its parent planet? Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system, yet it's not a rock world—it's a moon being constantly flexed and stretched by Jupiter's gravity.