Rapid falling of an orbiting moon to its parent planet due to tidal-seismic resonance

TL;DR

This paper investigates how tidal-seismic resonance can cause a moon to rapidly fall into its parent planet by amplifying seismic waves, affecting planetary shape and orbital dynamics, with implications for planet formation and interior analysis.

Contribution

It introduces the concept that tidal-seismic resonance can significantly accelerate moon infall and offers a new method to study planetary interiors through orbital tracking.

Findings

Tidal-seismic resonance can induce large seismic waves in the planet.

Resonance can cause the moon's orbit to decay rapidly.

Potential application in probing planetary interior structures.

Abstract

Tidal force plays an important role in the evolution of the planet-moon system. The tidal force of a moon can excite seismic waves in the planet it is orbiting. A tidal-seismic resonance is expected when a tidal force frequency matches a free-oscillation frequency of the planet. Here we show that when the moon is close to the planet, the tidal-seismic resonance can cause large-amplitude seismic waves, which can change the shape of the planet and in turn exert a negative torque on the moon to cause it to fall rapidly toward the planet. We postulate that the tidal-seismic resonance may be an important mechanism which can accelerate planet accretion process. On the other hand, tidal-seismic resonance effect can also be used to interrogate planet interior by long term tracking of the orbital change of the moon.