Quantification of Tides in Giant Planets from Observations

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in quantifying tidal effects on giant planets, highlighting measurements from the Cassini mission and discussing implications for both Solar System and exoplanet systems.

Contribution

It summarizes measurement techniques and results for Saturn's tidal parameters and discusses their extrapolation to other giant planets and exoplanets.

Findings

Measurements of Saturn's Love number and Q factor at different frequencies.

Summary of methods used to quantify tidal effects.

Discussion of tidal effects in exoplanet systems.

Abstract

Quantifying tidal effects on giant planets has recently made significant advances, thanks in particular to the Cassini space probe. During its thirteen-year orbit around Saturn, numerous measurements from different instruments made it possible to characterize fundamental parameters such as Saturn\'s Love number $k_2$ and quality factor $Q$ at different frequencies. In this article, we summarize the various measurements and methods that have allowed to arrive at such a result, as well as the extrapolations that can be deduced for other systems. More generally, the state of the art concerning the four giant planets of the Solar System is presented, as well as the case of exoplanets.