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Saturn's ice moon could be a 'stealth' ocean world hospitable to life - CNN

Saturn's ice moon could be a 'stealth' ocean world hospitable to life - CNN

Saturn's ice moon could be a 'stealth' ocean world hospitable to life - CNN
Jan 24, 2022 47 secs

Craters scattered across the moon suggest that its surface has remained frozen for a long time.

However, before the Cassini mission came to an end in 2017, it detected an oscillation in the moon's rotation that suggested Mimas may contain a subsurface ocean.

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.

Interior water ocean worlds, or IWOWs, are much further from the sun -- but they could still support life within their oceans.

"Because the surface of Mimas is heavily cratered, we thought it was just a frozen block of ice," said Rhoden, who is also the co-leader of NASA's Network for Ocean Worlds Research Coordination Network.

Future spacecraft could confirm that Mimas is indeed one of these interior water ocean worlds.

"Evaluating Mimas' status as an ocean moon would benchmark models of its formation and evolution," Rhoden said.

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