This image provided by NASA on February 13, 2010, shows Saturn's moon Mimas and its large Herschel crater, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. The crater is 130 kilometers (80 miles) wide. Astronomers have reported the best evidence to date that beneath Mimas's icy exterior is a vast, relatively new ocean, believed to be between 5 million and 15 million years old. The findings were published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, February 7, 2024. **NASA JPL-Caltech Space Science Institute Via AP astronomers have uncovered the best evidence to date that beneath the icy exterior of Saturn's Death Star is a vast, youthful ocean that looks like a mini-moon. Publish a collection of dragon cards to share millions of cash
The French-led team analysed changes in MIMAS' orbit and rotation and reported on Wednesday that a hidden ocean 12 to 18 miles (20 to 30 kilometers) below the frozen crust was more likely than an elongated rocky core. The scientists' findings are based on observations from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which observed Saturn and its more than 140 moons for more than a decade before diving into the ring's atmosphere and burning up in 2017.
At just 250 miles (400 kilometers) in diameter, this crater is severe and lacks the crevasses and geysers of Saturn, Enceladus, and Jupiter's Europa – typical signs of subterranean activity.
Mimas is probably the most unlikely place to find the world's oceans and liquid water," Valery Lainey, co-author of the Paris Observatory, said in an email. "So this looks like a potentially livable world. But no one knows how much time it takes for life to appear.
The findings were published in the journal Nature.
According to Lenny, the ocean is thought to occupy half of the volume of Mimas. However, given the Moon's petite size, it occupies only 1 of the Earth's oceans2% to 14%。Despite its small size, Mimas has the second-largest impact crater in the solar system, which is why it is on par with the fictional Death Star space station in Star Wars.
The idea that relatively small, icy satellites can give birth to young oceans is inspiring," Matija Cuk of the SETI Institute and Alyssa Rose Rhoden of the Southwest Institute wrote in an editorial. They are not part of the research.
According to Lenny, this subterranean ocean is thought to be between 5 million and 15 million years old, too young to mark the surface of the moon, and the overall temperature is near freezing. But at the bottom of the sea, he said, the water temperature could be much higher.
Co-author Nick Cooper of Queen Mary University of London said the presence of a "very young" ocean of liquid water made Mimas a prime candidate for studying the origins of life.
Discovered in 1789 by British astronomer William Herschel, MIMAS is named after the giant from Greek mythology.