A Wealth of Worlds: Moons of Ice and Rock

Our goals for learning

What kinds of ice worlds are in the outer
Solar System?
Why are Jupiters Galilean moons so
geologically active?
What is special about Titan and other
major moons of the solar system?

What kinds of Ice worlds Are

in the Outer Solar System?
Two main locations:

Icy moons orbiting gas giant planets

Kuiper belt just past Neptune (KBOs)

Size Scale:

Small (< 300 km)

Medium-sized (300-1,500 km)

No geological activity
Geological activity in past

Large (> 1,500 km)

Ongoing geological activity

Medium and Large Icy Worlds

Enough self-gravity to be spherical.

Metal/rock core, ice mantle and crust.
Some geological activity
Largest Kuiper Belt Objects are counted
as Dwarf Planets (Pluto, Eris, Haumea,
Makemake)

Medium &
Large Moons
Formed in orbit around
gas giant planets.
Circular orbits in same
direction as planet
rotation.

Why are Jupiters Galilean

moons so geologically active?

Io
12th
largest
world

Active
sulfur
volcanism

Ios Volcanic Activity

Io is the most volcanically active body in

the solar system, but why?

Changing volcanoes over 2 years

Tidal Heating

Io is squished and
stretched as it orbits
Jupiter

But what is
causing it to
stretch?

Every 7 days,
these 3 moons
line up.

Orbital Resonances

The tugs add up over

time, making all 3
orbits elliptical, which
pulls on the worlds.

Europa -13th largest world

Tidal stresses crack surface ice

No surface volcanos, but millions of faults all over the
surface. A few small craters are seen.

Europas Ocean: Waterworld?

Chaos regions: where warm ice wells up, breaks and
spreads the surface.

Inside Europa
Secondary magnetic field (requires liquid)
Broken disrupted surfaces from flowing ice
Surface covered in faults -some areas
spread apart.
Conclusion:
Liquid interior layer -a global ocean

Europas interior also warmed by tidal heating

Ganymede -8th largest world

Largest moon
in the solar
system
Surface has
long fault
regions, but
also heavily
cratered
plains.

Ganymede
Clear evidence of
geological activity
Tidal heating plus
heat from radioactive decay?
Has a magnetic
Field that varies.

Callisto
cratered iceball.
No tidal heating, no
orbital resonances.

Orbital
Resonances

Every 7 days,
these 3 moons
line up.

The tugs add up over

time, making all 3
orbits elliptical.

What have we learned?

What kinds of moons orbit jovian planets?
Moons of many sizes
Level of geological activity depends on size

Why are Jupiters Galilean moons so

geologically active?
Tidal heating drives activity, leading to Ios
volcanoes and ice geology on other moons

Saturn's Moons

What is special about Titan?

Titans Atmosphere
Titan is the only
moon in the solar
system to have a
thick atmosphere
It consists mostly
of nitrogen with
smog clouds that
obscure the
surface

Mosaic of Hygens Images

~5 miles high
shows dark
curving lines with
branching
tributaries (lower
left).
pattern is identical
to desert rivers on
Earth and the dryriver beds of Mars.
conclude that
Titan has flowing
liquids eroding out
channels.

Fish-eye Mosaic of Hygens Images

mountains and a shoreline to some kind of
dark-colored lake.
However, at -290 F at
the surface, water is
frozen as hard as rock.
The lake must be made
of organic liquids,
probably a methaneethane mix.

channels
mountains
lake

A closer look at the lake and shore-line region.

There appear to be drainage channels creating an
ice delta or ice bar, similar to the features seen on
the Nile or Mississippi deltas on Earth.

Channel
Delta

 Huygens landed with a quish!

The probe landed in a dry-river
bed with sands and stones
made of ice.
Huygens detected methane
steaming off the surface from
the heat of the probe.
This saturated with liquid
methane, just like wet soil on
Earth would contain water.

Giant North Pole Lakes

The biggest lake so far is 39,000 square miles, it is larger
than lake Superior and about the size of the Black Sea

Active Methane Cycle :(

There is a tiny amount of
methane rainfall
The lakes do not appear
to grow and shrink in size
There is probably not a
permanent methane
recycling system like
Earth's water cycle

This equatorial region has mountains (pale areas)

and sand dunes (the black linear features).

ins
a
t
n
u
o
m

s
dune
s
mountain

dunes

Sotra Facula:
A bright spot in Titan's sand sea
The feature is dome-shaped
Bright from fresh ice but has
a dark central pit.
Lines that seem to be flow
structures.

ICE VOLCANO

Sotra and similar

volcanoes in false color
Etna, Italy

SP Crater, Arizona USA

Sotra facula,
Titan

Meru, Tanzania

Tohil, Io

Sotra Facula, Titan

St. Helens, WA

St. Helens, Washington USA

Laki, Iceland

Maat Mons,Venus
Sif, Venus

Saturn has 6 medium-sized moons.

Mimas

They are big enough

to be round, but vary
in their amount of
geological activity.

Rhea
Dione

Enceladus

Tethys

Iapetus

 The south pole

of Enceladus is
covered in
recent faults!
This suggests
some unknown,
but complex,
internal activity
is occurring.
This is a false color image taken during Cassinis approach to this moon.

Enceladus has live volcanic ice eruptions!

The water freezes into ice particles and
rises in a plume over 300 miles high.
Water and carbon molecules

Water eruption plume

This colorized image shows the

enormous extent of the faint plume.

Inside Enceladus
Ice crust

Global
ocean

Enceladus has
forced libraton
(rocking back and
forth toward Saturn)

Maybe this causes

enough heating to
melt an internal
global ocean
Rock
core

Enceladus and E Ring

The volcanism on Enceladus is a major source for the
particles for Saturn's outer rings.
Here Enceladus emits water in the middle of the E ring .
E

Enceladus

Volcanic plume

Uranus midsized moons

Varying amounts of geological activity,

Mostly ancient tectonics

Neptunes
Moon
Triton

Neptunes Moon Triton

Similar to Pluto,
but larger
Evidence for past
geological activity

Icy
Volcanism
on Triton
Spouts of nitrogen
geysering above
the surface

Why are mid-sized icy worlds

more geologically active than
mid-sized rocky planets?

Rocky Worlds vs. Icy Worlds

Rock melts at higher

temperatures
Only large rocky
planets have enough
heat for activity

Ice melts at lower

temperatures
Fine forcing motions
can melt internal ice,
driving activity

What have we learned?

What is special about Titan?
Titan has strong active processes like Galileans
Titan is the only moon with a thick atmosphere
Titan is the only moon with liquid rivers and lakes.
Has former (current??) ice volcano

What have we learned?

Why are mid-sized icy worlds more geologically
active than same-sized rocky worlds?
Many other major moons show geological activity.
3 of gas giants have an actively volcanic moon.
Ice melts and deforms at lower temperatures enabling
tidal heating or other orbital forcing to drive activity

Pluto: Lone Dog No More

Our goals for learning
What are the large objects of the Kuiper
belt like?
What is Pluto like?

Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs)

Some KBOs are very
large, much more so
than asteroids.
Pluto is one, several
have been so far found.
large, icy objects are
round, but have orbits
similar to the smaller
objects
So are they very large
comets or very small
planets?

What is Pluto like?

Pluto is very cold (40 K)
It has 5 moons. The largest, Charon, is nearly
as large as Pluto itself (probably made by a
major impact)
Pluto has a thin nitrogen atmosphere that will
refreeze onto the surface as Plutos orbit takes
it farther from the Sun.

New Horizons Flyby June 2015

Atmosphere
with a methane
haze, similar to
Titan
Thickness?

Pluto & Charon (Enhanced Color)

Taken in blue, red

and IR light

Red color is tholin

dust
Complex
hydrocarbons
(solid smog!)

Tholins are at
Plutos equator
and Charons pole

Unexpected features, Mtns,

ridges, glaciers, cryovolcanoes
Mountains are similar height to
Rockies!