"Fascinating and peculiar": Potential subterranean ocean in Uranus's moon
Here's a refreshed and restructured version of the article, incorporating some insights from the enrichment data:
It seems our understanding of Uranus's icy moon, Miranda, is set for a major overhaul! Previously considered barren, this moon may have hosted a subsurface ocean at one point!
The game-changing discovery coincides with NASA's revealing that data from our dear, old Voyager 2 might have been misinterpreted.Voyager 2, the only spacecraft to offer a close-up view of distant Uranus, whizzed by in 1986, capturing breathtaking images of several of Uranus's moons, including the intriguing Miranda. The photos showed a tantalizing jigsaw of grooved terrain and craters, spurring the question: What geological processes could create such a complex mosaic?
A recent study offers a compelling answer: A subsurface ocean! Approximately 100-500 million years ago, Miranda might have harbored a 100km-deep (62-mile) ocean beneath its icy facade. Given Miranda's petite size with a radius of just 235km (146 miles), this ocean would have taken up much of its interior. Even today, the moon may still retain traces of an exceedingly thin ocean layer!
Tom Nordheim, researcher at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, shares the incredulity, expressing surprise at finding evidence of an ocean within a small object like Miranda, especially in one of the most distant planets in our Solar System. He says, "The findings are both exciting and bizarre!"
Meanwhile, NASA has proposed a rethink of some of Voyager 2's measurements of Uranus. During the flyby, the spacecraft reported a peculiar absence of water ions in Uranus's magnetosphere, suggesting its moons were all solidly frozen and subsequently not releasing any water.
However, a recent report reveals that Voyager 2 may have passed Uranus during an extreme space weather event. Such events can compress a planet's magnetic field, reducing the ions observed by the spacecraft. As Jamie Jasinski, lead researcher from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, elaborates, "If Voyager 2 had made the journey just a few days earlier, it would have witnessed an entirely different magnetosphere at Uranus!"
This new understanding could have far-reaching implications for our understanding of Uranus and its moons. As we tip-toe into the unknown, it's important to remember that every new discovery electrifies our curiosity and opens new doors to the cosmos!
For more information, visit www.nasa.gov.
[Reference: data from various NASA and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory reports]
- The revelation of a possible ancient subsurface ocean on Uranus's moon Miranda, though surprising, could potentially redefine our understanding of space weather and geological processes within the solar system, as studied by science.
- A reevaluation of Voyager 2's data from Uranus could impact health-and-wellness and space-and-astronomy fields, as new findings suggest that an extreme space weather event may have influenced the spacecraft's measurements, leading to misinterpretations.
