Study Reveals Saturn's "Mimas" Moon Might Have Hidden Boiling Ocean Under Its Ice

Saturn's moon Mimas, famously nicknamed the "Death Star" because of its giant cratered surface, may have a hidden ocean under its icy shell. While the moon looks geologically dead, a slight wobble in its movement suggests that liquid water could be present beneath the ice, according to researchers from UC Davis.

Many icy moons exist around the outer planets of our solar system. Some of these, like Saturn's Enceladus, harbor oceans of liquid water between their icy crust and rocky core. Scientists believe these oceans could be promising locations for the search for extraterrestrial life, reported Newsweek.

The UC Davis team studied what might be happening beneath these icy surfaces, how oceans form, how they behave, and why some of them might boil.

Icy moons are heated by tidal forces generated by their planets. These forces vary with the influence of neighbouring moons. More heat can melt the ice layer, while less heat allows it to thicken. Previously, researchers observed that thickening ice exerts pressure and shapes the surface texture. Now, they studied what happens when ice melts from below. They concluded that this process could cause oceans to boil.

Mimas's icy crust is unlikely to break apart when it's thin, so liquid water could exist beneath it, even though the surface appears to be passable. Because Mimas is small-just 250 miles wide-water beneath the ice could reach a state where it exists as a liquid, solid, and gas simultaneously, which could lead to boiling.

According to Max Rudolph, professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Davis, the team is focused on understanding the processes that shape the evolution of icy moons over millions of years. This research helps scientists predict what a moon with a hidden ocean might look like from the surface.

The study suggests that thinning the icy crust can have different effects on the moon's size. On smaller moons like Mimas, Enceladus, and Uranus's Miranda, the pressure beneath the ice could be so low that water begins to boil, producing steam and gases. The peaks and rocks seen on Miranda may be caused by this boiling ocean.

But on larger icy moons, the ice layer may break up before the water boils, preventing the formation of a boiling ocean.