Researchers studied the internal structure of icy moons in the far reaches of the solar system. By creating in a laboratory the conditions of pressure, temperature, stress, and grain size that mimic those in the deep interiors of large icy moons, a research team has demonstrated a new kind of “creep” or flow in a high-pressure form of ice.



Major components of the giant icy moons of the outer solar system are high-pressure phases of ice. They are the Jupiter’s Ganymede and Callisto, Saturn’s Titan, and Neptune’s Triton. Triton being roughly the size of our own moon; the other three giants are about 1.5 times larger in diameter.



Most of the icy moons condensed as “dirty snow balls” from the dust cloud around the sun (the solar nebula) about 4.5 billion years ago, accepted theory says. This accretionary process warmed the moons internally. It is also warmed by radioactive decay of their rocky fraction.



Via: Science Daily