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Auteurs principaux: Akiba, Ryunosuke, Nimmo, Francis
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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Accès en ligne:https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.16532
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author Akiba, Ryunosuke
Nimmo, Francis
author_facet Akiba, Ryunosuke
Nimmo, Francis
contents The large Kuiper Belt object (KBO) Eris is nearly as big as Pluto and has a small moon, Dysnomia. Constraints on the system's spin and orbit characteristics were recently used to argue for a dissipative Eris, requiring a differentiated structure but not necessarily a subsurface ocean. Here, we model the thermal history of Eris coupled to its spin-orbital evolution, finding a subsurface ocean is preferred in order for Eris to be sufficiently dissipative. Spinning down Eris without an ocean is difficult, requiring a warm convecting ice shell protected by a thick insulating layer and very dissipative anelastic behavior in ice. Oceans make up 77-100% of successful thermal-orbital evolution models, depending on the parameters assumed, which increases to >98% when the Andrade $β$ parameter for ice is restricted to $β\leq3\times10^{-11}$ Pa$^{-1}$ s$^{-0.25}$. Oceans freeze over by the present day unless insulation (porosity, gas clathrates) or antifreeze are present.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_16532
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Thermal-orbital evolution of Eris
Akiba, Ryunosuke
Nimmo, Francis
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
The large Kuiper Belt object (KBO) Eris is nearly as big as Pluto and has a small moon, Dysnomia. Constraints on the system's spin and orbit characteristics were recently used to argue for a dissipative Eris, requiring a differentiated structure but not necessarily a subsurface ocean. Here, we model the thermal history of Eris coupled to its spin-orbital evolution, finding a subsurface ocean is preferred in order for Eris to be sufficiently dissipative. Spinning down Eris without an ocean is difficult, requiring a warm convecting ice shell protected by a thick insulating layer and very dissipative anelastic behavior in ice. Oceans make up 77-100% of successful thermal-orbital evolution models, depending on the parameters assumed, which increases to >98% when the Andrade $β$ parameter for ice is restricted to $β\leq3\times10^{-11}$ Pa$^{-1}$ s$^{-0.25}$. Oceans freeze over by the present day unless insulation (porosity, gas clathrates) or antifreeze are present.
title Thermal-orbital evolution of Eris
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.16532