The orbit of Phobos exhibits an along-track acceleration, which suggests energy dissipation in the Mars-Phobos system. We hypothesize that the inferred dissipation occurs within Mars. We explore the response of a layered, incompressible Maxwell viscoelastic Mars to tidal forcing by Phobos using normal mode relaxation theory. Our results elucidate the general behavior of a tidally forced viscoelastic body, and have implications for the viscoelastic structure of Mars. We find the real and imaginary part of the degree-two tidal Love number for Mars to be 0.168 and -9.32x10^−4 respectively. Models which satisfy these and other constraints have either: a fluid core with radius 2040 km and density 5410 kg/m^3; or an elastic inner core with radius 1200 km and density 6700 kg/m^3, along with a fluid outer core with thickness 850 km and density 4850 kg/m^3. These findings support previous hypotheses that Mars has at least a fluid outer core.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OTU.1807/31386 |
| Date | 19 December 2011 |
| Creators | Pithawala, Taronish M. |
| Contributors | Ghent, Rebecca R., Bills, Bruce G. |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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