  It has been discussed whether viscous processes in neutron star matter during
a binary inspiral can damp out the tidal energy induced by the companion and
heat up the star. Earlier investigations concluded that this tidal heating is
negligible for normal neutron star matter. In this work, we suggest a novel
effect of tidal heating involving strange matter in the neutron star interior,
that can significantly heat up the star, and is potentially observable by
current and future gravitational wave detectors. We propose that this could
serve as a direct probe of strangeness in neutron stars.
