How do planetary bodies respond to periodic tidal forcing and how does that influence heat flow and orbital evolution?- Report from the KISS Workshop entitled "Tidal Heating-Lessons from Io and the Jovian System"

The evolution of planets and satellites and their potential habitability are central questions of planetary science. Recent discoveries from spacecraft missions and telescopic programs have illuminated the central role that tidal heating plays in the evolution of worlds across our solar system and beyond. This fundamental process drives the orbital evolution of planetary-satellite systems and shapes the surface environments and geological activity of satellites, impacting the habitability of ocean worlds. However, despite its broad ranging importance, there remain fundamental gaps in our understanding of tidal heating. The central objective of this KISS sponsored workshop is to integrate recent advances across relevant fields, including laboratory studies, new telescopic/spacecraft data, and instrumentation under development, in order to construct a path forward for establishing a definitive framework for understanding tidal heating and its influence on the evolution of planetary systems. Amongst the many tidally heated worlds in our solar system, the effects of tidal heating are most prominent within the Laplace resonance between Jupiter's moons Io, Europa, and Ganymede. Io is the most tidally deformed and heated world in the solar system—as evidenced by the continually erupting volcanoes across its surface, and is thus the ideal target for investigating these questions. The workshop will focus on three science questions: (1)How do solid/liquid planetary bodies respond and deform in response to periodic tidal forcing? (2) How do tides influence global heat flow and its variations? and (3) How do spins and orbits of planetary satellites respond to tides over long timescales? We plan to address these questions in a three-pronged approach. First, we will review and integrate recent scientific advances and relevant new or in-development technology and instrumentation. Second, we will identify key gaps in our current framework for understanding tides and tidal heating. Lastly, we will identify specific requirements for bridging these gaps, including: the measurements to be acquired, instrument technologies to be developed, and new theoretical modeling capabilities and/or data techniques to be developed. The resulting final report will represent a roadmap for future understanding of tidal heating.

The evolution of planets and satellites and their potential habitability are central questions of planetary science. Recent discoveries from spacecraft missions and telescopic programs have illuminated the central role that tidal heating plays in the evolution of worlds across our solar system and beyond. This fundamental process drives the orbital evolution of planetary-satellite systems and shapes the surface environments and geological activity of satellites, impacting the habitability of ocean worlds. However, despite its broad ranging importance, there remain fundamental gaps in our understanding of tidal heating. The central objective of this KISS sponsored workshop is to integrate recent advances across relevant fields, including laboratory studies, new telescopic/spacecraft data, and instrumentation under development, in order to construct a path forward for establishing a definitive framework for understanding tidal heating and its influence on the evolution of planetary systems. Amongst the many tidally heated worlds in our solar system, the effects of tidal heating are most prominent within the Laplace resonance between Jupiter's moons Io, Europa, and Ganymede. Io is the most tidally deformed and heated world in the solar system—as evidenced by the continually erupting volcanoes across its surface, and is thus the ideal target for investigating these questions. The workshop will focus on three science questions: (1)How do solid/liquid planetary bodies respond and deform in response to periodic tidal forcing? (2) How do tides influence global heat flow and its variations? and (3) How do spins and orbits of planetary satellites respond to tides over long timescales? We plan to address these questions in a three-pronged approach. First, we will review and integrate recent scientific advances and relevant new or in-development technology and instrumentation. Second, we will identify key gaps in our current framework for understanding tides and tidal heating. Lastly, we will identify specific requirements for bridging these gaps, including: the measurements to be acquired, instrument technologies to be developed, and new theoretical modeling capabilities and/or data techniques to be developed. The resulting final report will represent a roadmap for future understanding of tidal heating.