Jovian Moon Resonance
Jupiter's moon Io has an orbital period of 1.769 days, nearly half that of the next satellite Europa (3.551 days). They are said to be in a 2:1 orbit-orbit resonance. This particular resonance has important consequences because Europa's gravity perturbs the orbit of Io. As Io moves closer to Jupiter and then further away in the course of a orbit, it experiences significant tidal stresses resulting in active volcanoes, which Voyager observed. Europa is also in a 2:1 resonance with the next satellite Ganymede.
Read more about this topic: Stability Of The Solar System, Scenarios
Famous quotes containing the words moon and/or resonance:
“Suppose you attend to the suggestions which the moon makes for one month, commonly in vain, will it not be very different from anything in literature or religion? But why not study this Sanskrit? What if one moon has come and gone with its world of poetry, its weird teachings, its oracular suggestions,—so divine a creature freighted with hints for me, and I have not used her? One moon gone by unnoticed?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is closing time in the gardens of the West and from now on an artist will be judged only by the resonance of his solitude or the quality of his despair.”
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