New evidence suggests that four moons of Uranus may have oceans of liquid water beneath their surface. The findings are the result of a re-evaluation of measurement data collected by NASA’s Voyager probe, as well as findings from other probes such as Cassini, Dawn, Galileo, and New Horizons. According to the US Space Agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the four moons, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon, could potentially have hidden oceans that are dozens of kilometers deep. Miranda, Uranus’s fifth-largest moon, has shown signs of such an ocean, but it is believed to have frozen by now.
Uranus is the seventh planet in the solar system and is larger than Jupiter and Saturn. NASA’s Voyager 2 probe is the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus. There are currently 27 known Uranus moons, with five considered main moons. The new assessment of the data collected by Voyager 2 has revealed evidence of hidden oceans beneath the surface of the main moons.
The study’s lead author, Julie Castillo-Rogez, explains that the evaluation is based on finds of similar bodies of water in “unlikely locations” on other celestial bodies such as Ceres, Pluto, Saturn’s moon, and elsewhere. The study highlights that there are currently unknown mechanisms at work, which need to be investigated further. The team aims to develop new instruments that can find and explore these hidden waters beneath the surface of Uranus moons.
The findings of the study have been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, and they emphasize the significance of Uranus within our solar system. A year ago, the US science academies requested the preparations of a first probe to explore Uranus, which would provide significant insights into the exploration of exoplanets. The proposed Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP) mission would launch and gain momentum on Jupiter in either 2023 or 2031. The mission could unlock the secrets of the hidden oceans on Uranus’s moons and provide further information about the mechanisms at play in our solar system.
