At a time when scientists were trying to find water on other planets and their moons, NASA made a big revelation. According to a tweet by NASA Sun and Space, one or more of Uranus’ moons may have oceans hidden beneath their icy surfaces. “One or more of Uranus’ moons may have oceans hidden beneath their icy surface, according to new findings,” tweets read.
in a new one research led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, researchers re-analyzed nearly 40-year-old energetic particle and magnetic field data captured by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft – the only spacecraft to date to have come close to Uranus. Their results, recently accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, suggest that one or two of Uranus’ 27 moons – Ariel and/or Miranda – are adding plasma to the atmosphere. time through a mysterious and unknown mechanism.
One interesting explanation is that one or both moons have oceans below their icy surface and are actively spewing matter, possibly through clouds, says Johns Applied Physics Laboratory Hopkins said in a report. report.
“Scientists think the moons may be pumping out particles with plumes of water vapor – which have been seen on other moons in the past. solar systemwhere the plumes are thought to come from the subsurface oceans,” NASA Sun and Space stated in another tweet.
Scientists had previously suspected Uranus’ five largest moons – including Ariel and Miranda – might have subsurface oceans, based on images from Travel 2 showing signs of material of the geological resurfacing process. If an ocean existed on these moons, they would join the subsurface ocean club with other moons such as Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus.
The findings come as NASA is considering sending a flagship mission to Uranus, including an orbital and atmospheric probe. The new discovery was presented at the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference on March 16.
