Tidal Friction Could Help Earth-Sized Planets in Eccentric Orbits

Solar system creation is a chaotic and violent event.  Giant planets often barrel through the inner part of a young solar system, which disrupts smaller planets which form closer to the star.  A planet that was in the habitable zone and could have had a good chance to develop life may find itself flung out of the solar system, or at the very least forced into an eccentric orbit, approaching its star very closely or getting much further away that it was previously.  This raises the possibility of our terrestrial planet running into some other planet, or getting absorbed by the star itself.  If the planet does survive, it still has to worry about the intense gravitational forces placed upon it when the planet does get close to the star.

There is good news though, according to a recent study.  If a planet has multiple layers like ours does, it will settle back into a circular orbit much quicker than expected, in less than a million years.  As long as the planet is not melted completely through, it will resist tidal flexing and quite quickly resume a safe, circular orbit.  After a while, the tidal heating would subside, the planet would cool off and potentially become habitable.  Also, the study also found that a planet covered in a thick layer of ice could also benefit from tidal heating, as a layer of ice hundreds or thousands of miles thick is actually rather springy and would flex in exactly the right way to generate a lot of heat, melting much of the ice and creating subsurface oceans, much like on Europa.

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