Planetary Science Seminar spring-2016

The Frequency Spectrum of Tidal Heating

Tidal friction can be a significant source of internal heat, especially in smaller bodies which may have already lost their primordial heat. Energy dissipated in this way drives internal evolution as well as orbital evolution, allowing us to reconstruct a planet's past as well as predict its future state. Classic studies find a very simple expression to arrive at the global tidal heating rate for any body having orbital eccentricity and/or spin obliquity. I will explain some major assumptions to this formulation, dealing with the internal structure of the body as well as the frequency at which it is forced. In this, I will show that this simple expression is probably neglecting important terms which describe greater dissipation rates than classically described.