New models challenge the long-standing conclusion about Mimas, an icy satellite of Saturn, being an inactive snowball, suggesting the existence of a young stealth ocean.
Saturn’s moon Mimas could have grown a huge underground ocean as its orbital eccentricity decreased to its present value and caused its icy shell to melt and thin.
Hidden beneath the heavily cratered surface of Mimas, one of Saturn’s smallest moons, lies a secret: a global ocean of liquid water.
Here we present the current state of knowledge on the long-term evolution of Saturn’s moon system due to tides within Saturn. First we provide some background on tidal evolution, orbital […]
Some of the icy moons of the solar system with a subsurface ocean, such as Europa and Enceladus, are the targets of future space missions that search for potential extraterrestrial […]
When a Southwest Research Institute scientist discovered surprising evidence that Saturn’s smallest, innermost moon could generate the right amount of heat to support a liquid internal ocean, colleagues began studying […]
The geologically active south pole of Enceladus generates a plume of micron-sized particles, which likely form Saturn’s tenuous E-ring extending from the orbit of Mimas to Titan. Interactions between these […]
A Southwest Research Institute scientist set out to prove that the tiny, innermost moon of Saturn was a frozen inert satellite and instead discovered compelling evidence that Mimas has a […]
