Abstract We hypothesise that Triton's “geysers” are analogous to the remnant activity of comet Halley, whose outbursts producing a particulate coma are persisting out beyond 12 A.U. Halley's outbursts are understood as resulting from inward freezing of a subsurface lake or sea that's maintained at > 10 m depth via metabolic energy release. Cracking of the ice due to thermal expansion forces generates sporadic emissions of H2O and other gases. Analogous activity on Triton is a manifestation of internal freezing of an interior sea under a km or so of ice. This sea at the present epoch is quite separate from the interior liquid ocean, expected to be maintained at > 100 km deep by radiogenic heating. The near-surface sea is maintained also by chemical or metabolic energy and sporadically emits gases and condensates through cracks induced during its freezing. Emissions through the ice cover on both comets and Triton would drive surface geology, thus enabling access to new nutrients and trace elements that may be vital for subterranean biology. Triton's biology would be a relic from its tidal heating phase, when the interior was liquid below a 1–2 km frozen lithosphere.∗ Univ. of Wales, College of Cardiff, Atmospheric & Space Science preprint No. 6.
Triton's eruptions analogous to comet Halley's?
Advances in Space Research ; 12 , 11 ; 133-138
1992-01-01
6 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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