Long-Term Evolution of the Saturnian System

Origin and Evolution of Enceladus’s Tidal Dissipation

Enceladus possesses a subsurface ocean beneath a conductive ice shell. Based on shell thickness models, the estimated total conductive heat loss from Enceladus is 25–40 GW; the measured heat output from the South Polar Terrain (SPT) is 4–19 GW. The present-day SPT heat flux is of order 100 mWm -21 −, comparable to estimated paleo-heat fluxes for other regions of Enceladus. These regions have nominal ages of about 2 Ga, but the estimates are uncertain because the impactor flux in the Saturnian system may not resemble that elsewhere. Enceladus’s measured rate of orbital expansion implies a low dissipation factor Q p for Saturn, with Q p ≈3×10 -3 (neglecting the role of Dione). This value implies that Enceladus’s present-day equilibrium tidal heat production (roughly 50 GW, but with large uncertainties) is in approximate balance with its heat loss. If Q p is constant, Enceladus cannot be older than 1.5 Gyr (because otherwise it would have migrated more than is permissible). However, Saturn’s dissipation may be better described by the “resonance-locking” theory, in which case Enceladus’s orbit may have only evolved outwards by about 35% over the age of the Solar System. In the constant-Q p scenario, any ancient tidal heating events would have been too energetic to be consistent with the observations. Because resonance-locking makes capture into earlier mean-motion orbital resonances less likely, the inferred ancient heating episodes probably took place when the current orbital resonance was already established. In the resonance-locking scenario, tidal heating did not change significantly over time, allowing for a long-lived ocean and a relatively stable ice shell. If so, Enceladus is an attractive target for future exploration from a habitability standpoint.