Exomoon Tidal Heating Detection Map (2D)

Moons squeezed by an eccentric orbit around a giant planet flex internally and dissipate that strain as heat — exactly the mechanism keeping Io's volcanoes erupting. Rather than watching a moon orbit a planet in perspective, this 2D view plots the tidal-heating formula directly as a field over eccentricity and orbital distance, the two variables that drive it hardest, with a contour marking where the resulting infrared excess clears an assumed photometric detection threshold. A second strip-chart panel replays the periapsis-weighted flexing rate over one orbit alongside a deforming ellipse showing the moon's cross-section stretching at closest approach — the physical mechanism the heatmap is built from. Live readouts track the heating power against Io's real output, insolation-only versus actual temperature, and detection significance against the noise floor.