Quote Originally Posted by Pannonian View Post
When did Enceladus overtake Europa in the possibility of life stakes? The description of Enceladus sounds like the description of Europa, and I'd have thought that Europa, being closer to the sun and being the moon of a bigger planet and thus being subject to bigger gravitational stresses, would have more geological activity and thus warmth.
Why would it have bigger gravitational stresses in an orbit? Isn't the whole point of orbiting something that the gravitation of the object being orbited does not really matter? I mean, if it would, it wouldn't be an orbit but a fall, no? Maybe there's something I'm missing here.