Questions tagged [tidal-locking]
Questions regarding a phenomenon when an object has an orbital period that is equal to its rotational period due to gravitational tidal forces.
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How can Io be tidally heated while it is in tidal lock?
According to its Wikipedia page:
Rotation period: synchronous
Eccentricity: 0.0041
But also
...extreme geologic activity is the result of tidal heating...
How is it possible? It should not be ...
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Under which conditions could a planet's massive moon's orbit get closer to the planet?
The recent question How do we know the Moon was much closer than it is now? has piqued my interest. The answers are numerous and clear. But I started to wonder. The question includes the following ...
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Will the Earth ever be tidally locked to the Moon?
From my basic understating,
Momentum is being transfered from the Earth's rotation to the Moon's orbit by tidal friction. The Earth's rotation slows down and the Moon receedes from the Earth as it ...
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Shouldn't tidal locking be impossible for a satellite that has a considerably eccentric orbit?
This popped up into my mind just now. The Moon is tidally locked to Earth, and also has a significantly eccentric orbit. This means that its orbital velocity near periapsis is considerably faster than ...
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Is the moon "perfectly" tidally locked and, if not, how long would it take us to observe it's rotation?
I have a general understanding of how and why a body in space can be tidally locked to it's planet or sun and I'm aware that our moon is in such a state.
My question is, if our moon once had a ...
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Would the Earth and Moon still have tides after the Earth tidally locks to the Moon?
Ignore the Sun's expansion.
From my understanding, tidal locking happens from torque as a result of tidal bulges being offset from the line between the two planets. So when the Earth and Moon tidally ...
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Has the Earth-facing side of the Moon that we see today always faced us ever since the Moon got tidally locked? Or does it precess?
Title. Does the Earth-facing side of the Moon slowly precess due to perturbations and torques exerted by other bodies? Or is the side of the Moon we see today the same as when it first got tidally ...
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"Tidally locked" Oort Cloud object
Is the Oort cloud spherical enough and are there enough objects in it that it is likely there is at least one in there that it has shown the same face to the sun for billions of years and will ...
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Does the orbital decay of Triton affect Neptune's rotation?
Just a quick question regarding Neptune. Because Phobos is spiraling in towards Mars, Mars' rotation speeds up. Does the same thing happen with Neptune's rotation?
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How would ocean tides work on a tidally-locked planet?
Since the tidal bulge is always in the same place, how would that affect ocean tides? Would they change throughout an elliptical orbit, due to changing distance from the star? How exactly would they ...
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Why do planets in red dwarf star systems tend to have a higher probability to get tidally locked?
I have read about about the habitability of red dwarf systems on Wikipedia, as well as some web articles on similar topics. The problem is, it does not explain why and how it happened. Google search ...
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Why isn't Earth tidally locked to the sun?
Given that the moon has long been tidally locked with the Earth, why isn't Earth (or any of our other solar system's planets) tidally locked to the sun?
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Eventual outcome of tidal acceleration and deceleration
So, I know the Moon experiences tidal acceleration from the Earth. And, from what I've read, if not for the fact that the sun would boil away the oceans and engulf both of them first, about 50 billion ...
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Is there any residual oscillation left from the Moon rotation?
The Moon is tidally locked to Earth - a long time ago it was spinning, but after a time, the spin stopped - two factors stabilizing it: unequal mass distribution creating an equilibrium position where ...
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Could a tidally locked large moon prevent a close-orbiting planet from getting tidally locked to its star?
A planet can get tidally locked to its moon, like Pluto and Charon, or like Earth someday and Luna. A planet can get tidally locked to its sun - close orbiting exoplanets are assumed to be tidally ...
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