- Mimas is a small moon with a crater so large it looks like the Death Star.
- Astronomers say it could be hiding an ocean beneath its icy, cratered surface.
Researchers suggest that one of Saturn’s moons could be hiding an ocean beneath its icy, cratered surface that could provide a haven for life.
Mimas is a small moon but it has a crater so large that it gives the appearance of the Death Star space station from Star Wars.
Astronomers have long believed it has a solid core because nothing has been observed on the moon’s surface to indicate it has a subsurface ocean.
But a new study, made possible by data from a crashed spacecraft, suggests otherwise.
NASA’s Cassini, a spacecraft sent to study Saturn, spent two decades in space, including tracking the orbit of Mimas.
Mimas is a small moon but it has a crater so large that it gives the appearance of the Death Star space station from Star Wars.
The spacecraft was destroyed in 2017 when it was intentionally plunged into Saturn’s atmosphere.
But a new analysis of their data indicates that Mimas’s position and orbit are better explained by being influenced by an internal ocean than by having a solid core.
Researchers at the Paris Observatory estimate that the ocean is under a layer of ice approximately 20 to 30 kilometers deep, is less than 25 million years old, and is still evolving.
The discovery, published in the journal Nature, is likely to trigger a “comprehensive examination” of medium-sized icy moons across the Solar System.
In an accompanying commentary, Matija Ćuk, a research scientist at the SETI Institute in California, and Alyssa Rhoden of the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado, said: “The detection of liquid water oceans beneath the icy surfaces of the Solar System’s outer moons suggests that these moons could provide abodes for life in conditions that differ markedly from those on Earth.
One of Saturn’s moons could be hiding an ocean beneath its icy surface that could provide a haven for life, researchers suggest.
‘There are many implications of Mimas being an ocean world. The idea that relatively small icy moons could host young oceans is inspiring.
“The findings will motivate a comprehensive examination of medium-sized icy moons throughout the Solar System.
“The Solar System will always hold surprises, and researchers must be open enough to new ideas and unexpected possibilities to recognize them.”
Dr Nick Cooper, honorary research fellow at Queen Mary University of London, said: “Mimas is a small moon, only about 400 kilometers in diameter, and its cratered surface gives no glimpse of the hidden ocean beneath.
‘This discovery adds Mimas to an exclusive club of moons with internal oceans, including Enceladus and Europa, but with a unique difference: its ocean is remarkably young, estimated to be only five to 15 million years old.
“The existence of a newly formed liquid water ocean makes Mimas an ideal candidate for study by researchers investigating the origin of life.”