Credits: Social Media
Hidden underground ocean discovered on Saturns Death Star moon
Scientists reveal Saturns Death Star moon holds a large ocean beneath its icy surface making it a prime target for finding extra-terrestrial life.
Scientists are constantly looking for signs of water on other planets, moons, and even asteroids in the hope of learning more about how life could evolve beyond Earth and we have a new prime target, Saturns infamous Death Star moon, Mimas.
Hidden ocean found on Saturns Death Star moon
This week, a team of scientists revealed that one of Saturns smallest moons, Mimas, harbors a vast global ocean beneath its icy surface, making it one of the prime candidates for studying the origin of life in our solar system.
Mimas is around 2000 times smaller than our moon and is widely known as the Death Star moon due to its uncanny resemblance to the planet-destroying weapon from the Star Wars franchise.
“At first glance, it is the most unlikely place in the solar system to look for liquid water, it looks old and inactive – a huge amount of craters. Nothing betrays the ocean existence, at the moment,” said lead author Valery Lainey.
- MOVE OVER DARK ENERGY: New theory suggests our universe is absorbing baby universes as it expands
Yet through data collected by NASAs Cassini spacecraft, scientists have been able to determine that the liquid ocean sits beneath a layer of ice thats around 12-19 miles (20-30 km) thick.
According to the researchers, who published their findings in Nature on February 7, this giant ocean was formed just 5 to 15 million years ago the word just might seem a little obsolete there, but thats cosmic terms and timelines for you.
- WE’D ALL MISS IT TOO: US astronaut reveals what he missed most about life on Earth
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 5 to 15 million years old.”
The hope is that one day, scientists could explore Mimas and its hidden ocean to find out just how life evolved in our solar system since life here on Earth originated in our primordial seas billions of years ago.
The existence of a recently formed liquid water ocean makes Mimas a prime candidate for study, for researchers investigating the origin of life, celebrated co-author Dr Nick Cooper.
Mimas sits around 1.2 billion km from Earth, so it might be some time before scientists can send more equipment to study the ocean, but keep an eye on this space.
