French explorers discover underground ocean on Saturn’s moon, Mimas

“If there’s one thing in the solar system where we really wouldn’t expect to find liquid water, it’s definitely Mimas.“, welcomes Valerie Leni, an astronomer at the Paris-PSL observatory, who led a study, published on Wednesday February 7 in the journal Nature, which shows the existence of a subterranean ocean on this moon of Saturn, a small satellite with a diameter of 400 kilometers, living now gas Intelligent life around giants.

“Externally, Mimas has a highly cratered surface, indicating that the surface is very oldThe astronomer continues. There is an absence of geological activity, so there are no traces of geological activity in its interior and yet, this is amazing, an ocean is formed under the icy surface which is about 20 to 30 kilometers thick.“

Recent appearance of water bodies

To reach this conclusion, it was necessary to compare data provided by the American probe Cassini, which observed Saturn and its suburbs until 2017, and statistical models describing the movement of Mimas in its orbit. This moon joins four others already known to have such an internal ocean in our solar system, a little extra here, an undoubtedly recent appearance of this global water body.

For Valerie Laney, “This means that the solar system is constantly evolving, and places that seem deserted can sometimes be very late in the system’s evolution.”. Habitat, a key element before considering the hypothetical emergence of any form of life in the universe.