Scientists say they’ve discovered more moons with oceans in the solar system – Ars Technica

In recent decades, NASA has sent large spacecraft—Galileo and Cassini, respectively—to fly around Jupiter and Saturn to explore the dozens of moons in these two planetary systems.

The spacecraft has investigated all kinds of interesting moons, from tiny, radiation-saturated hell holes to a world covered in volcanoes. But the most interesting discovery made by these probes is that Jupiter and Saturn are surrounded by small and large moons covered in ice, and have large oceans of water below them, or both. This was exciting because wherever there is water in its liquid state, there is the potential for life.

In response to these discoveries, NASA plans to launch a mission to Europa, an ice-covered moon in the Jovian system, as early as 2024. Another mission might launch to Saturn’s moon Titan a few years later, where there are oceans of liquid. methane on the surface. And just last month, the European Space Agency launched a spacecraft, Juice, to explore several icy moons of Jupiter.

Now, NASA may need to add Uranus’ moons to the exploration list. Besides being known for its funny name and bright sky color, Uranus has no less than 27 moons. And they are also very curious.

The space agency has only launched one spacecraft, Voyager 2, near the seventh planet in our solar system. The Voyager spacecraft flew by Uranus a long time ago, in 1985. But in light of discoveries by the Cassini, Dawn, and New Horizons spacecraft, scientists have been reconsidering the data collected by Voyager as well as the data obtained by Earth. List of telescopes.

This led NASA scientists to conclude that four of Uranus’ largest moons – Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon – may have water oceans beneath their icy crusts. These oceans are likely tens of kilometers deep and may be somewhat salty in being sandwiched between the upper ice and the inner rocky core. Scientists say these inner cores likely produce enough heat from radioactive decay to form layers of liquid water. In addition, chlorides, as well as ammonia, are likely abundant in the oceans of the ice giant’s largest moons and may help keep them unfrozen.

The good news is that NASA is likely about to get serious about exploring the Uranian system. About a year ago, the National Academies met to prioritize planetary science, astrobiology, and planetary defense missions in the next 10 years, and Uranus topped the list.

The scientists said that the “Uranus Probe and Probe” would transform our knowledge of ice giants in general and the Uranus system in particular through flybys and atmospheric probe delivery. Launches from 2023 to 2032 were applicable to currently available launch vehicles.

Now, scientists seeking to explore Uranus have another good reason to send a large spacecraft there, and that is to explore more of its icy moons. After all, no one knows what lies behind Uranus.

What, I thought I’d write this whole story without making that joke?