Tag: Mimas
Readers discuss Mimas’ hidden ocean and ancient cave art
Hidden depths
Slight changes in the orbit of Saturn’s moon Mimas hint at the presence of a vast, young ocean beneath the satellite’s icy surface that may have formed between 5 million and 50 million years ago, Adam Mann reported in “This Saturn moon may harbor water” (SN: 3/9/24, p. 8).
Reader Bobby Baum asked how the ocean formed so recently and whether an ocean could have formed multiple times in the past.
Saturn’s moons gravitationally interact with
Saturn’s moon Mimas might harbor a hidden ocean
An uncanny resemblance to the Death Star might not be the only intriguing thing about Saturn’s moon Mimas. It could also harbor a vast ocean of liquid water beneath its pockmarked exterior.
A new look at data from NASA’s Cassini probe reveals that the point in Mimas’ orbit where it comes closest to Saturn changed slightly over 13 years, researchers report February 7 in Nature. Because Mimas’ internal composition affects the gravitational dance between the moon and its planet,