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EuEuropan Subtype

Icy worlds heated by tidal stresses

Europan worlds
Image from Steve Bowers
Major sub-type of Europan Type world, heated internally by tidal stresses. These worlds are most commonly found in orbit around gas giants, brown dwarfs and small red dwarfs, well beyond the frost line.

Distinguished by a rocky core with a water-ice mantle. A subsurface ocean 10 to 100 kilometers in depth is almost always present, due to tidal stretching of the world. Surface movement is constant, and obliterates all impact scars in a short amount of geologic time. Life may be present, but is likely to be primitive, if it is even beyond the microbial stage. Atmospheres are thin and transient. A thin layer of tholins or other organic material may be present.
 
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Appears in Topics
Planetology
 
Development Notes
Text by John M. Dollan
Initially published on 24 October 2001.

 
 
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