Saturn’s moon could harbor extraterrestrial life: Mimas may have a hidden ocean buried under nearly 30 kilometers of ice, research shows
- Mimas is a small moon with a crater so large it resembles the Death Star
- Astronomers say it may be hiding an ocean beneath the icy crater surface
One of Saturn’s moons could hide an ocean beneath its icy crater surface, which could be a habitat for life, researchers suggest.
Mimas is a small moon, but it has a crater so big it resembles 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 there is a subsurface ocean.
But a new study – powered by data from a crashed spacecraft – suggests otherwise.
NASA’s Cassini, a spacecraft sent to study Saturn, spent twenty years in space, including tracking the orbit of Mimas.
Mimas is a small moon, but has a crater so big it looks like the Death Star space station from Star Wars
The spacecraft was destroyed in 2017 when it purposefully plunged into Saturn’s atmosphere.
But new analysis of the data indicates that Mimas’ position and orbit are best explained as influenced by an internal ocean rather than a solid core.
The researchers from the Observatoire de Paris calculate that the ocean lies under an icy shell about 20 to 30 km deep, is less than 25 million years old and is still developing.
The discovery, published in the journal Nature, is likely to lead to a “thorough investigation” of medium-sized icy moons across the solar system.
In an accompanying commentary piece, Matija Ćuk, research scientists at the SETI Institute in California, and Alyssa Rhoden, from the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado, said: ‘The detection of liquid water oceans beneath the icy surfaces of the outer Solar System’s moons suggests that these moons could provide a habitat for life under conditions significantly different from those on Earth.
One of Saturn’s moons could hide an ocean beneath its icy crater surface, which could provide a habitat for life, researchers suggest
“There are a lot of implications if Mimas is an ocean world. The idea that relatively small, icy moons could harbor young oceans is inspiring.
‘The findings will motivate a thorough investigation of medium-sized icy moons across the solar system.
‘The solar system will always have surprises in store, and researchers must be open enough to new ideas and unexpected possibilities to recognize them.’
Dr. Nick Cooper, honorary researcher at Queen Mary University of London, said: ‘Mimas is a small moon, only about 400 kilometers in diameter, and its heavily cratered surface gave no clue to 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: the ocean is remarkably young, estimated to be only five to fifteen million years old.
‘The existence of a recently formed liquid water ocean makes Mimas an excellent candidate for research, for researchers investigating the origins of life.’