Seismo Lab Brown Bag Seminar

Exploring the planets and the moons in the solar system has been considerably improved with the observations that have become available through many successful missions in the current century. In this regard, I use the geodetic observations, mainly the gravitational interactions between planets and moons known as body tides to infer knowledge about the interior structure and evolution of different rocky and icy bodies such as the size and physical state of the layers and mechanical properties. Also, tidal dissipation results in inwards or outwards migration of the moons from their hosting planets, as well as considerably changing their interior properties such as maintaining subsurface oceans by the tidally produced heat. Moreover, tides provide a means to understand the history and the origin of the planetary bodies by studying their combined thermal and orbital evolution. In this context, I will discuss the constraints on the interior properties and origin of the Mars-Phobos-Deimos system, the Pluto-Charon system and some of the icy moons such as Enceladus that are subject to intense tidal heating, and discuss how measurements of the tidal activities, in the form of deformations, migration rate, and heat flux can help understand the nature of these bodies, their interior, history and evolution.