A recently formed ocean inside Saturn’s moon Mimas

V. Lainey (), N. Rambaux, G. Tobie, N. Cooper, Q. Zhang, B. Noyelles and K. Baillié
Additional contact information
V. Lainey: IMCCE, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Université Lille
N. Rambaux: IMCCE, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Université Lille
G. Tobie: LPG, UMR-CNRS 6112, Nantes Université
N. Cooper: Queen Mary University of London
Q. Zhang: Jinan University
B. Noyelles: Institut UTINAM, CNRS UMR 6213, Université de Franche-Comté, OSU THETA, BP 1615
K. Baillié: IMCCE, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Université Lille

Nature, 2024, vol. 626, issue 7998, 280-282

Abstract: Abstract Moons potentially harbouring a global ocean are tending to become relatively common objects in the Solar System1. The presence of these long-lived global oceans is generally betrayed by surface modification owing to internal dynamics2. Hence, Mimas would be the most unlikely place to look for the presence of a global ocean3. Here, from detailed analysis of Mimas’s orbital motion based on Cassini data, with a particular focus on Mimas’s periapsis drift, we show that its heavily cratered icy shell hides a global ocean, at a depth of 20–30 kilometres. Eccentricity damping implies that the ocean is likely to be less than 25 million years old and still evolving. Our simulations show that the ocean–ice interface reached a depth of less than 30 kilometres only recently (less than 2–3 million years ago), a time span too short for signs of activity at Mimas’s surface to have appeared.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06975-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:626:y:2024:i:7998:d:10.1038_s41586-023-06975-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06975-9

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().