Scientists may have identified the presence of a hidden ocean beneath the icy surface of Miranda, a small satellite of Uranus.
This unexpected discovery could change our understanding of icy worlds and revive the debate over the possibility of life on other bodies in our Solar System, reports
Miranda, the smallest and closest of Uranus’ five large moons, has fascinated astronomers since the first images transmitted by the Voyager 2 probe in 1986. Although this icy world measures only 233 kilometers in diameter, its surface reveals a rich and complex geological past. . The photographs returned by Voyager 2 in particular revealed amazing features such as vast craters and fault systems. These features testify to the tectonic activity that appears to have shaped Miranda over millions of years.
The Southern Hemisphere, visible during Voyager’s flyby, also features geological layers that suggest a history marked by periods of intense reshaping. There we find an ancient, cratered unit covered by younger strata, indicating geological reworking. These young formations, called crowns, are distinguished by their dark concentric grooves that may have been created by processes such as diapirism or cryovolcanism.
This thus suggests internal movements of materials within the ice crust. Recent studies have also highlighted the presence of ammonia (NH₃) on Miranda’s surface, an element that indicates recent geological activity due to its fragility to radiation. Therefore, this discovery raises questions about the geological processes currently taking place on this mysterious moon.
