00:00The answer is brutal. Good old gravity. Io is in an extreme position. On the one hand,
00:07there's Jupiter with its gigantic mass. On the other hand, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto
00:13also target Io. The result isn't a stable circular orbit. Io is forced into an elliptical orbit,
00:19sometimes closer to Jupiter, sometimes further away, every two days or so. And each time
00:25the moon is stretched and released again, and stretched again, and released. We know tides
00:34on Earth. The moon lifts our oceans, perhaps half a meter. Io is deformed by up to 100 meters.
00:42Not water. Rock. 100 meters. Every two days. That is not a gentle process. That is continuous
00:50kneading. This phenomenon is called tidal heating. Or tidal heating, it is basically mechanical energy
00:58that is directly converted into heat.
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