Reply To: Animated nuclear reaction.

[Brian H]

pluto wrote: G’day

I think there is a combinatiion of both. Tidal and radiative are the way to go.

When we have no large moons of planets influencing we end up with a run out of radiating heat and the little tidal effect results in a dead dynamo.

We see this with MARS.

Io is tidal effected due to Jupiters extreme gravity making it the most active volcanic place in the solar system.

Planet Earth has a Solid core with a liquid outer core and the moon plays an active part in tidal effect.

The Stars do not have a dynamo, they have a dynamotor, but thats another story.

The numbers don’t work that way. If the Moon’s motion was contributing that much heat to the Earth, it would itself be warmed and flexed even more, and its orbit would decay rapidly. Neither of those is happening, nor could they given the relative masses, distances, velocities, etc. There’s no free lunch, and no free flexing.

Io is the exception that demonstrates the rule, sort of. The Moon is 1/4 Earth’s diameter, almost 1/64 its volume and mass. Io is fairly similar, but it is about 1/64,000 Jupiter’s volume and mass. That’s a distinction with a difference. Imagine a 200-lb man wearing a 3-lb knapsack, and spinning around. Now imagine the same man with a tiny 1-gram button sewed onto his collar. Those are the comparable ratios.