Saturn's moon has a subterranean ocean that could hide alien life, scientists suggest

ASTRONOMERS have discovered that one of Saturn's smallest moons may harbor a liquid ocean.

Saturn's moon, called Mimas, has a heavily cratered surface that resembles the Death Star from Star Wars.

More striking than its appearance, however, is that it may have an ocean beneath its thick layer of ice.

The presence of liquid water could make Mimas one of the most potentially habitable places in our solar system.

“The key finding here is the discovery of habitability conditions on an object in the solar system that we would never, ever expect to have liquid water,” Valery Lainey, a discovery team member and scientist at the Observatoire de Paris, told Space. com.

Researchers say the ocean could be about 20 to 30 kilometers beneath the ice and harbor microbial life.

The team behind the discovery also believes that the ocean may be quite young, between 2 million and 25 million years.

Mima's liquid ocean could also comprise at least half the moon's volume.

If the ocean is confirmed, it could change the way astronomers search for extraterrestrial life.

“Mimas is a small object that looks extremely cold, with no geological activity, and you would never expect any geophysical activity inside, such as heating, or contact between water and with silicates in the rocky core,” Lainey said.

“It's really amazing that this is happening,” Lainey added.

Researchers base their theories on data collected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which was launched into Saturn's system in 1997.

They looked specifically at Mimas' rotational motion using the Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS).

“A measured libration amplitude of -50.3 ± 1.0 arcmin was found for the Mimas orbital frequency.” so says the study.

“It was inferred that Mimas should host a very elongated silicate core or a global ocean,” the report continued.

The researchers also explained why Cassini did not directly detect the ocean.

“It's really surprising that we didn't see anything, but the thickness of Mimas' icy shell is enough to sustain this ocean for millions of years without any significant activity,” Lainey continued.

“That's why Cassini didn't find anything on the surface of Mimas.”

Lainey hopes that future missions will eventually land a spacecraft on Mimas' surface.

“I'm pretty sure that any space mission to Enceladus will also visit Mimas, because they are extremely close, and they are extremely similar ocean systems, but at different times in their evolution,” he explained.

Enceladus is another moon of Saturn that was confirmed to host a liquid ocean NASA.

The team's research was published on Wednesday, February 7, in the journal Nature.