A recently formed ocean inside Saturn's moon Mimas.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38326592.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41586-023-06975-9.
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Abstract
Moons potentially harbouring a global ocean are tending to become relatively common objects in the Solar System<sup>1</sup>. The presence of these long-lived global oceans is generally betrayed by surface modification owing to internal dynamics<sup>2</sup>. Hence, Mimas would be the most unlikely place to look for the presence of a global ocean<sup>3</sup>. Here, from detailed analysis of Mimas's orbital motion based on Cassini data, with a particular focus on Mimas's periapsis drift, we show that its heavily cratered icy shell hides a global ocean, at a depth of 20-30 kilometres. Eccentricity damping implies that the ocean is likely to be less than 25 million years old and still evolving. Our simulations show that the ocean-ice interface reached a depth of less than 30 kilometres only recently (less than 2-3 million years ago), a time span too short for signs of activity at Mimas's surface to have appeared.