Will moons orbiting gas giants always be tidally locked?
+0
−0
Inspired by this article about the Kepler-enabled search for life-supporting moons, I came over here to learn more about the concept. I found this very complicated answer to a very complicated question on the subject, part of which says:
Tidal locking will occur at some point in time. You can't get around it.
I want to understand this statement more without all the equations.
- For one, is it true?
- What causes the situation?
- Over what period of time?
- Does it last forever?
- Is it periodic (i.e. the moon becomes tidally locked, stays that way for a while, then "breaks free" and rotates again)?
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/39952. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
0 comment threads