XPost: sci.space.policy
From: spam@merlyn.demon.co.uk
JRS: In article , dated
Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:42:52, seen in news:sci.space.policy, Craig Fink
posted :
>Just wondering how big the tides on Titan might be?
>
>Maybe they're huge?
>
>Low gravity in conjunction with a really big moon called Saturn. After all
>motion is relative. ;-)
Our Moon has an angular diameter, from Earth, of 0.01 and a specific
gravity of about 3.
Saturn has an angular diameter, from Titan, of 0.1 and a specific
gravity of about 1.
The tidal field will therefore be about 1000/3 = 300 times greater.
I forget the value of Titan's surface gravity; but, being proportional
to specific gravity and to radius, it should be about a third of ours;
and the seas there will be a little less dense than seawater.
The tidal response should therefore be around three orders of magnitude
greater than ours here, if other things were equal.
Unequal things include :
Titan's seas look smaller - our continental shoreline tides are much
grater than our mid-ocean ones (cf. tsunami).
Titan keeps the same face towards Saturn, with some libration; Earth
does not keep the same face towards the Moon. But the distance Titan-
Saturn varies too.
The Moon's relevant period is about a day; Titan's is 16 days.
Titan seems, on the whole, likely to be flatter than Earth; and it is
very likely that some of the flatter-than-average parts will be near
mean sea level.
Thus ISTM that tide, as measured by the distance of ebb and flow, will
probably be small but not imperceptible. However, if the "sea" is
actually lakes rather than ocean, variations of local "rainfall" may
have more effect.
--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. *@merlyn.demon.co.uk / ??.Stockton@physics.org ©
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