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ENCELADUS

Keeping the ocean warm

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More than 20 GW of power are necessary to balance the heat emitted by Enceladus and avoid the freezing of its internal ocean. A very porous core undergoing tidal heating can generate the required power to maintain a liquid ocean and drive hydrothermal activity.

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Fig. 1: Sketch of the interior of Enceladus.

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Correspondence to Francis Nimmo.

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Nimmo, F. Keeping the ocean warm. Nat Astron 1, 821–822 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-017-0337-4

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