Another water world in solar system? Saturn’s moon ‘Death Star’ possibly hiding massive ocean

In a recent study, researchers have claimed that the moon of Saturn, which has a massive impact crater on its surface and appears similar to the Death Star from Star Wars, has a hidden ocean which is buried miles beneath its crust.

With the discovery, Mimas - which is a 250-mile-wide ice ball - became the latest member to join an exclusive club of moons which harbour subterranean oceans. Saturn’s Titan and Enceladus and Jupiter’s Europa and Ganymede were already part of the group.

Astronomer at the Observatoire de Paris in France Valery Lainey said, "It’s quite a surprise. If you look at the surface of Mimas, there’s nothing that betrays a subsurface ocean. It’s the most unlikely candidate by far.”

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Keeping in mind the peculiarities in Mimas’ orbit, the astronomers have drawn two possibilities: either an internal ocean of the moon helped its outer shell to shift independently from the core or that it contains an elongated core covered in ice.

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The calculations done by Lainey and his colleagues, using images captured by NASA’s Cassini mission to Saturn, showed that the moon contains a hidden subsurface ocean.

“There is no way to explain both the spin of Mimas and the orbit with a rigid interior. “You definitely need to have the global ocean on which the icy shelf can slip," said Lainey.

The scientists said that an ocean, which is 45 miles deep, is hidden beneath Mimas’s 15-mile-thick icy shell, and temperatures close to the sea floor reach tens of degrees Celsius.

Are global oceans harbouring life?

The findings of global oceans in moons around Jupiter and Saturn have left scientists studying if they have a potential for harbouring life.

More than 100 geysers have been spotted on Enceladus where vapour blasts through surface fractures. If life ever evolved on the tiny moon, the plumes could propel extraterrestrial microbes out into space where they could be detected by visiting missions.

Lainey said that since the moon contained water which is in contact with warm rock, he can't rule out the existence of life.

However, if the hidden ocean is only tens of millions of years old, the possibility of the ocean harbouring life may be less.

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He said, “Whether it’s too young, nobody knows. I would say: why not?”

Professor of planetary geosciences at the Open University David Rothery said that even if subsurface ocean was present beneath the surface of Mimas, there were comparatively easier places to look for life beyond Earth.

“There’s no indication of a connection between the internal ocean, where life could survive, and the surface or space where traces of life could be detected and sampled, such as we have done in the plumes of Enceladus, and hope to do on the surface or in plumes at Europa,” said Rothery, as reported by The Guardian.

“If there were life inside Mimas, it would be hidden by more than 20km of unbroken ice. If the ocean has existed for only 25mn years, that may not have been enough time for life to get started and established. Europa and Enceladus are much more promising candidates," he added.

(With inputs from agencies)