Return to Question

Section 5: TL;DR

TL;DR: How does little or lots of liquid affect tidal locking and why?

Section 1: Non-Duplicate Proofs.  Section 2: Background, THE QUESTION, and Useful Info. Section 3: Other cited ways of preventing. Section 4: Sources and Additional Recources.

Non-Duplicate Proofs This is not a duplicate of Tidal lock on a water moon. The answer provided there does not answer this question (or that one fully either). I am providing these specific proofs because of the last comment made by @Ash on another post of mine (Can you have an eccentric horseshoe orbit for long?) insisting that the resources in an answer to a question determines its duplicacy, and not the question itself. If these are not satisfactory, I am also providing question based proofs of non-duplicacy.

1. bowlturner insists that those worlds that are close enough to the sun to have liquid water would constantly be losing it, which in and of itself may be true, but given a high enough escape velocity as well as a thick enough atmosphere and magnetosphere, the loss would prove negligible on time scales of millions to billions of years, not to mention possible reintroduction of water from other sources. He does not mention escape velocity, and also provides an answer based on little to no atmosphere as well as magnetosphere, both of which my moon has.

2. The claim that most moons aren't going to have major amounts of liquid surface also falls flat in that I've seen numerous sources saying that if a moon of a gas giant were to migrate inward, it would be a so called water world (sources at the very end, and I'll provide more if needed).

3. The fact that bowlturner cites Titon as having ice under its surface, yet neglecting to mention the fact that much of this ice would melt and populate the surface of Titan with much more water were it to heat up is also a point of contention.

4. The answer provided by bowlturner does not provide enough qualifiers under the "hard-science" tag, and therefore does not answer my question.

1. My question pertains to any liquid, and not necessarily just water. This allows for different densities, freezing and boiling points, heat absorption and disopation rate, and many other factors as long as they would be liquid on the surface.

2. Green asked a question wondering whether a watery world could and would be tidal locked, whereas my question asks specifically how to prevent tidal locking with any liquid in high quantities under specified parameters for a terrestrial based moon.

I've seen very very vague comments alluding to keeping a world from tidal locking if it's covered in liquid water (or I'm assuming any liquid). After the first one, I thought it was just a fluke or something, and then I saw one or two more, and now I'm very intrigued as to whether this could be a viable natural way of stopping tidal locking (as long as the liquid stays). Now it may be specifically because of an atmosphere that this would occur, but I really don't know. I know that in the case of an atmosphere, it has something to do with angular momentum and heat lagging behind the time of when it heats the ground vs the atmosphere or something along those lines, and I'm curious if this could be a similar case that is multiplied more for a mostly liquid surface.

Could you stop or reverse tidal locking on the surface (or mantle) of a terrestrial based moon (see info about pertaining system) by having a mostly liquid (only one main piece of land mostly used as a way to test the tidal lock) covered world? If yes, how much liquid would be needed, and would said liquid need to be of a specific density or viscosity to even be possible? And I would appreciate a "why" in any given answers (preferably with linked articles or other proofs). Also, please note that this is a theoretical moon that could have originated any natural way: a former rogue planet, a former inner planet, a naturally formed moon, a leftover body from colliding with another body, or any other natural possible means of getting a moon around a gas giant; I clarified this to include objects that may have had higher chances of having large amounts of surface water to start.

The moon orbiting the gas giant in my situation has no satellites of its own, and the primary (gas giant) is around 1-12.5 Jovian masses. My moon is near terrestrial sized (0.4-1.5 Earth masses and .6-2 Earth radii) with plate tectonics, a decent surface pressure due to atmosphere (maybe 0.5-2.5 bar; see source 4), an orbiting distance between .0067 au and .03 au, volcanism (non-rampant), a substantial magnetosphere, appropriate escape velocity for near Earth habitability conditions (or for that of a liquid used in an answer), and a partridge in a pear tree. IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW IT GOT THESE THINGS, IT JUST JUST MATTERS WHAT HAPPENS ONCE IT IS IN A STABLE ORBIT WITH TERRESTRIAL BASED CONDITIONS.  Temperature is whatever is needed to provide for necessary high volumes of liquid, and I would appreciate any answers specifying temperature, if it is a highly specific range within that the range of making a substance a liquid.

1. Having an eccentric orbit that increases the body's chance of being caught in a higher spin orbit resonance (above tidal locking's 1:1 ratio of how many spins per orbits in the same time) such as Mercury's 3:2.

2. Having a specific pressure atmosphere will allow for closer orbits than very thin or non-existant atmosphered objects that would tidal lock at the same distance (refer to: https://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=32547)

3. Being very misshaped while being able to retain being misshaped through tensile strength or other means similar to the moon Hyperion.

4. Having multiple strong tidal forces acting upon a body at different distances, angles, and forces, or having negligible tidal forces acting on the body.

5. Being a rogue ninja planet mo-fo whose world doesn't revolve around anyone or anything.

6. The obvious one of artificial means.

I'm also providing any additional resources that I can find that may help others better find the answer to the question since I sometimes have a hard time understanding specific graphs and deeper astronomy or Astro-physics based terms.

Section 1: Non-Duplicate Proofs. 

Section 2: Background, THE QUESTION, and Useful Info. 

Section 3: Other cited ways of preventing. 

Section 4: Sources and Additional Resources.

Non-Duplicate Proofs This is not a duplicate of Tidal lock on a water moon. The answer provided there does not answer this question (or that one fully either). I am providing these specific proofs because of the last comment made by @Ash on another post of mine (Can you have an eccentric horseshoe orbit for long?) insisting that the resources in an answer to a question determines its duplication, and not the question itself. If these are not satisfactory, I am also providing question based proofs of non-duplication.

1. bowlturner insists that those worlds that are close enough to the sun to have liquid water would constantly be losing it, which in and of itself may be true, but given a high enough escape velocity as well as a thick enough atmosphere and magnetosphere, the loss would prove negligible on time scales of millions to billions of years, not to mention possible reintroduction of water from other sources. He does not mention escape velocity, and also provides an answer based on little to no atmosphere as well as magnetosphere, both of which my moon has.

2. The claim that most moons aren't going to have major amounts of liquid surface also falls flat in that I've seen numerous sources saying that if a moon of a gas giant were to migrate inward, it would be a so called water world (sources at the very end, and I'll provide more if needed).

3. The fact that bowlturner cites Titan as having ice under its surface, yet neglecting to mention the fact that much of this ice would melt and populate the surface of Titan with much more water were it to heat up is also a point of contention.

4. The answer provided by bowlturner does not provide enough qualifiers under the "hard-science" tag, and therefore does not answer my question.

1. My question pertains to any liquid, and not necessarily just water. This allows for different densities, freezing and boiling points, heat absorption and dispersion rate, and many other factors as long as they would be liquid on the surface.

2. Green asked a question wondering whether a watery world could and would be tidal locked, whereas my question asks specifically how to prevent tidal locking with any liquid in high quantities under specified parameters for a terrestrial based moon.

I've seen very very vague comments alluding to keeping a world from tidal locking if it's covered in liquid water (or I'm assuming any liquid). After the first one, I thought it was just a fluke or something, and then I saw one or two more, and now I'm very intrigued as to whether this could be a viable natural way of stopping tidal locking (as long as the liquid stays). 

Now it may be specifically because of an atmosphere that this would occur, but I really don't know. I know that in the case of an atmosphere, it has something to do with angular momentum and heat lagging behind the time of when it heats the ground vs the atmosphere or something along those lines, and I'm curious if this could be a similar case that is multiplied more for a mostly liquid surface.

Could you stop or reverse tidal locking on the surface (or mantle) of a terrestrial based moon (see info about pertaining system) by having a mostly liquid (only one main piece of land mostly used as a way to test the tidal lock) covered world? If yes, how much liquid would be needed, and would said liquid need to be of a specific density or viscosity to even be possible? And I would appreciate a "why" in any given answers (preferably with linked articles or other proofs). 

Also, please note that this is a theoretical moon that could have originated any natural way: a former rogue planet, a former inner planet, a naturally formed moon, a leftover body from colliding with another body, or any other natural possible means of getting a moon around a gas giant; I clarified this to include objects that may have had higher chances of having large amounts of surface water to start.

The moon orbiting the gas giant in my situation has no satellites of its own, and the primary (gas giant) is around 1-12.5 Jovian masses. My moon is near terrestrial sized (0.4-1.5 Earth masses and .6-2 Earth radii) with plate tectonics, a decent surface pressure due to atmosphere (maybe 0.5-2.5 bar; see source 4), an orbiting distance between .0067 au and .03 au, vulcanism (non-rampant), a substantial magnetosphere, appropriate escape velocity for near Earth habitability conditions (or for that of a liquid used in an answer), and a partridge in a pear tree. 

IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW IT GOT THESE THINGS, IT JUST JUST MATTERS WHAT HAPPENS ONCE IT IS IN A STABLE ORBIT WITH TERRESTRIAL BASED CONDITIONS. 

Temperature is whatever is needed to provide for necessary high volumes of liquid, and I would appreciate any answers specifying temperature, if it is a highly specific range within that the range of making a substance a liquid.

1. Having an eccentric orbit that increases the body's chance of being caught in a higher spin orbit resonance (above tidal locking's 1:1 ratio of how many spins per orbits in the same time) such as Mercury's 3:2.

2. Having a specific pressure atmosphere will allow for closer orbits than objects very thin or non-existent atmospheres that would tidal lock at the same distance (refer to: https://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=32547)

3. Being very misshaped while being able to retain being misshaped through tensile strength or other means similar to the moon Hyperion.

4. Having multiple strong tidal forces acting upon a body at different distances, angles, and forces, or having negligible tidal forces acting on the body.

5. Being a rogue ninja planet mo-fo whose world doesn't revolve around anyone or anything.

6. The obvious one of artificial means.

I'm also providing any additional resources that I can find that may help others better find the answer to the question since I sometimes have a hard time understanding specific graphs and deeper astronomy or astrophysics based terms.