Uranus's 4 icy moons can exist liquid water oceans

Water is considered one of the essential elements constituting life on Earth, and is also the most studied chemical compound in the universe by humans.

When it comes to exploring the planets in our solar system, most attention is focused on those closest to Earth, where human spacecraft can easily visit or track. than. With today's powerful telescope systems, scientists regularly observe gas giants such as Jupiter, Saturn, and constantly find new things.

However, more distant planets such as Uranus and Neptune often receive little attention due to technical limitations. As technology gradually became more advanced, and more and more scientists advocated a mission to visit this planet. That determination was further strengthened when a recent study found that four of the planet's moons may contain liquid water.

Accordingly, researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory re-analyzed data collected from the Voyager 2 mission that passed by Uranus in the 1980s to look at the five largest of the moons. 27 moons of this planet: Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon and Miranda. Using computer modeling of the porosity of the surfaces, the team found that four of these moons may contain oceans of liquid water beneath the icy crust.

The chart below shows the arrays of the interior of Uranus' five largest moons, which are thought to be composed of layers of ice, rock, and water. Although Uranus and its moons are very far from the sun and therefore have very cold surface temperatures, the existence of salty oceans is possible because they are insulated by a layer of ice. thick, and seems to have ammonia in it that acts like a natural antifreeze. In some cases, moons can warm themselves by internal heat from their rocky mantle.

Uranus's 4 icy moons can exist liquid water oceans Picture 1 Uranus's 4 icy moons can exist liquid water oceans Picture 1

This insulating effect is similar to that seen in the icy moons around Jupiter and Saturn, which are also thought to contain oceans and are a target for research on the possibility of life. There seem to be plenty of places in the solar system that could contain oceans of water, even if they are outside the habitable zone.