Posted on by Evan Gough

Even Tiny Mimas Seems to Have an Internal Ocean of Liquid Water

Mimas, as imaged by NASA's Cassini spacecraft and processed by @kevinmgill

Data from the Cassini mission keeps fuelling discoveries. The latest discovery is that Saturn’s tiny moon Mimas may have an internal ocean. If it does, the moon joins a growing list of natural satellites in our Solar System that may harbour liquid water under their surfaces.

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Posted on by Andy Tomaswick

Oh, the Irony. There are Likely Water Worlds Everywhere, but They’re Covered in ice and Impossible to Investigate

Liquid water was originally thought to be relatively rare in the solar system.  But one of the most important discoveries of the last several decades of planetary science is that liquid water is extremely common, even outside of the orbit of a star that would allow for it on the surface of a planet or moon.  It just happens to be covered by a sheet of ice.  Scientists at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have now theorized about what the abundance of liquid water means for life throughout the galaxy, and whether it might be more common than originally thought.  

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