It might be time to add another ocean moon to our Solar System's list. New research suggests Uranus' Miranda has an ocean.
Uranus' fifth-largest moon is Miranda. It's known for its surface features, and new research suggests that a subsurface ocean could be shaping the moon's surface. Image Credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Caltech
Scientists don’t have much to go on when it comes to Miranda. The only spacecraft to image it was Voyager 2 in 1986. Even then, the flyby was brief, and the spacecraft only imaged the moon’s southern hemisphere. But that was enough to reveal the moon’s bizarre and complex geological surface features. Miranda’s strangeThis figure from the study shows some of Miranda’s surface features. The moon is known for its coronae features, two of which are labelled here. Image Credit: Strom et al. 2024.
The model that best matched the surface was one where Miranda had a vast ocean under its surface some 100-500 million years ago. The icy crust is probably 30 km thick or less, and the ocean could be up to 100 km thick. Miranda and other moons of Uranus were likely in resonance in the past, which could’ve created surface fractures and related terrain.
Researchers used to think that Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, the most reflective object in the Solar System, was just a ball of ice. After all, its surface is smooth and clearly frozen solid. However, the Cassini mission showed us that it may not be totally frozen. There’s a bevy of evidence that Enceladus has a warm ocean under a layer of ice.
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