A new ocean was recently discovered within our Solar System in the most surprising of places, multiple scientists revealed Wednesday.
Mimas, a mid-size icy moon orbiting Saturn, is one of the last places scientists thought to look to find a global ocean, the authors wrote in a study published in the journal Nature. Moons carrying, or potentially carrying oceans, are actually pretty common in our Solar System, but are usually revealed by “surface modification owing to internal dynamics.”
Mimas is “too geologically inert” to show the same internal dynamics, such as having water sloshing around inside it, noted an analysis of the study by Alexandra Witze. But heck, it looks like science was wrong!
One of Saturn’s moons might be our next stop https://t.co/jyGn5RAb3n
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 15, 2023
Analysis of data captured by the Cassini spacecraft between 2004 and 2017 revealed a heavily cratered, icy shell that likely hides Mimas’ global ocean some 20 to 30 kilometers (12 to 18 miles) beneath its surface. Further analysis suggests the potential ocean is less than 25 million years old, and is still in the process of evolution.
Mimas is only about 400 kilometers (248.5 miles) wide and wobbles a bit as it goes around Saturn, suggesting either a buried ocean or a rugby-ball-shaped core. But as more scientists studied its activity, the truth became clear: Scientists are going to need a bigger boat. (RELATED: Scientists Find Heat-Emitting Blob On The Far Side Of The Moon)
“I am happy to move Mimas from the ‘maybe possibly an ocean world’ category to the ‘yeah it really could be an ocean moon’ category,” said Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado planetary science expert Alyssa Rhoden, who uncovered similar results in her own research on Mimas. “There are no boring moons,” she noted. And I couldn’t agree more.
If these moons are even real, that is.