Saturn's innermost moon, which resembles the Death Star from Star Wars, may be a 'stealth' ocean world, according to new research.
Saturn's innermost moon, which resembles the Death Star from Star Wars, may be a"stealth" ocean world, according to new research.
The moon is only 115,000 miles from Saturn and takes just over 22 hours to complete one orbit around the planet. Mimas is covered in craters, but the largest one is 80 miles across and gives the moon its distinctive Death Star appearance. Our solar system is home to multiple ocean worlds, or moons where oceans exist beneath thick ice shells, including Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus. These differ from Earth, which is at the right distance from the sun to include liquid water oceans on its surface.
"IWOWs, such as Enceladus and Europa, tend to be fractured and show other signs of geologic activity. Turns out, Mimas' surface was tricking us, and our new understanding has greatly expanded the definition of a potentially habitable world in our solar system and beyond." To re-create the oscillation detected in Mimas' rotation by Cassini, the researchers used models to show that tidal heating occurring in the small moon is enough to maintain an ocean beneath an ice shell that is between 14 to 20 miles thick.
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