Ask Science
Ask a science question, get a science answer.
Community Rules
Rule 1: Be respectful and inclusive.
Treat others with respect, and maintain a positive atmosphere.
Rule 2: No harassment, hate speech, bigotry, or trolling.
Avoid any form of harassment, hate speech, bigotry, or offensive behavior.
Rule 3: Engage in constructive discussions.
Contribute to meaningful and constructive discussions that enhance scientific understanding.
Rule 4: No AI-generated answers.
Strictly prohibit the use of AI-generated answers. Providing answers generated by AI systems is not allowed and may result in a ban.
Rule 5: Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
Adhere to community guidelines and comply with instructions given by moderators.
Rule 6: Use appropriate language and tone.
Communicate using suitable language and maintain a professional and respectful tone.
Rule 7: Report violations.
Report any violations of the community rules to the moderators for appropriate action.
Rule 8: Foster a continuous learning environment.
Encourage a continuous learning environment where members can share knowledge and engage in scientific discussions.
Rule 9: Source required for answers.
Provide credible sources for answers. Failure to include a source may result in the removal of the answer to ensure information reliability.
By adhering to these rules, we create a welcoming and informative environment where science-related questions receive accurate and credible answers. Thank you for your cooperation in making the Ask Science community a valuable resource for scientific knowledge.
We retain the discretion to modify the rules as we deem necessary.
view the rest of the comments
I'm going to express some solidarity with OP here. I feel like there is some unconscious bias affecting their visualisation, in no small part due to my first blush reaction being "that kinda makes sense". On Earth at sea level we are used to ice being rigid enough that we don't expect tidal forces to distort it at the same rate as it affects neighbouring water, however as OP pointed out tidal forces in the Jovian system are colossal compared to what we are familiar with.
We also expect our atmosphere to rush in to fill any available space, even though that's only true at surface level (give or take a few meters) its counter intuitive to think about different paradigms of atmosphere if you haven't trained those reflexes.
Its kinda like the hottest parts of he Earths core being hotter than a large amount of the surface of he sun. That boggles my mind, but once I understood the caveats of that statement and the science involved it made a lot more sense, even if it wasn't intuitive.
I'm also considering Europa's ice shell being kilometers thick. In our Arctic Ocean, the ice is somewhere around 10 meters (30 feet) on average, less in many spots.