Saturn’s ‘Death Star’ moon might be hiding an underground ocean
During a mission to discover whether or not Saturn’s moon Mimas was geologically dead, researchers discovered something far more surprising: “compelling evidence” of an underground ocean buried beneath the surface of the Death Star-like moon. Mimas, the researchers say, might be a “‘stealth’ ocean world,” a finding that, if verified, would further expand the number of potentially habitable places in our solar system.
Icy moons with evidence of subsurface oceans have garnered a lot of attention from scientists lately. The two best known examples in our solar system, Saturn’s Enceladus and Jupiter’s Europa, are considered prime places to search for alien life. Enceladus, in particular, appears to have most of the ingredients needed to...