A recent study suggests that Uranus’s moon Miranda may have a hidden sea beneath its icy crust, making it potentially hospitable to extraterrestrial life. The discovery is surprising, given the vast distance between Miranda and the Sun.
Miranda, one of Uranus’s 27 moons, was first discovered in 1781 by William Herschel. Voyager 2 captured close-up images of Miranda in 1986, revealing a bizarre landscape with deep grooves, towering cliffs, and mysterious trapezoid-shaped regions known as coronae.
A team of researchers led by planetary scientist Tom Nordheim used computer modeling techniques to reconstruct Miranda’s geologic past. They found that around 100-500 million years ago, Miranda likely harbored a subsurface ocean at least 62 miles deep beneath a frozen crust no more than 19 miles thick.
The team believes that the moon’s interior hasn’t entirely frozen over, and there’s a good chance that it still has a subsurface ocean. However, they need more data to confirm this hypothesis.
This discovery is exciting because it challenges our understanding of Miranda and raises new questions about the potential for life on other celestial bodies. The possibility of finding life beyond Earth is tantalizing, but further research is needed to determine if an ocean definitely exists on Miranda.
The study published in The Planetary Science Journal suggests that Miranda may be hiding a vast ocean beneath its patchwork surface. Launching new missions to Uranus could provide more insights into this distant moon and its potential for life.
Source: https://www.earth.com/news/uranus-moon-miranda-may-have-hidden-ocean-possibly-extraterrestrial-life