They discover that there is a small hidden ocean on one of Saturn’s moons.

A Saturn’s small moon will have a hidden ocean under its surface. This is Mimas, one of the seven main satellites of this planet in the solar system. This discovery surprised scientists, and some of them believe that there will be conditions for the existence of life.

Diapersalso known as the Death Star due to the huge impact crater on its surface. This is an ice ball about 400 kilometers wide.. This is not the first time that an ocean has been discovered on one of the moons of our solar system. In fact, Saturn’s other two moons, Titan and Enceladus, were already known to contain water deposits.

But Mimas is one of the least expected places to find an oceansays a study report published in Nature. For example, the surface of Titan and Enceladus has changed over time, which is a key clue to the presence of water mass. But Mimas’s terrain is heavily cratered, suggesting that it remained static for much of its history.

“It’s a big surprise,” said Valerie Laney, an astronomer at the Paris Observatory in France. The keeper. “If you look at the surface of Mimas, there is nothing that would suggest an underground ocean. “He is by far the most unlikely candidate.”

According to a group of scientists, The Mimas Ocean lies 20 to 30 kilometers below the surface. with temperatures reaching tens of degrees Celsius in the deepest part. Researchers also believe that it formed relatively recently: their calculations show that appeared between 2 and 25 million years ago. Another remarkable aspect is that this ocean will occupy at least half the volume of this small moon of Saturn.

How did they discover an ocean on Saturn’s small moon?

For a long time, Mimas was thought to be composed primarily of solid ice and rock.. However, in 2014, the team noticed a strange change in the orbit and rotation of this Saturn moon: it was “wobbly.”

Researchers at the Paris Observatory analyzed observations of the orbit of Mimas made by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. They eventually discovered that its orbit around Saturn had shifted by about 10 kilometers over 13 years. This phenomenon was explained by two hypotheses: the satellite had a solid, deformed core shaped like a rugby ball, or it had an underground ocean.

Some astronomers rejected the ocean explanation because they insisted that such a body of water would leave visible traces on the surface. But recent modeling shows the opposite.

ice cap The surface of Mimas is so thick that would hide this ocean insidewithout any significant activity on its surface.

He the water will be in constant friction against the rocky core of this moon. Saturn. Scientists say the interaction of water and rocks played a vital role in the origin of life on Earth. Thus, this activity on Mimas may offer new clues about the origin and development of our solar system.

Laney said he could not rule out life there. If the hidden ocean is as young as thought, life may not have had time to evolve yet. Despite this, the scientist insists that these are just estimates and she does not know with certainty how long ago it formed. “I would say: why not?”