Astronomers have, for the first time, measured the depth and extent of a subsurface sea on the ice-covered moon Enceladus.
To peek inside Enceladus, Luciano Iess, an aerospace engineer at Sapienza University of Rome, and colleagues looked at Doppler shifts in Cassini’s Earth-bound radio signal during three flybys of the moon.
The presence of a salty ocean inevitably leads to musings on the possibility for life.
Though no evidence suggests that aliens swim the seas of Enceladus, the presence of a warm, briny environment raises intriguing possibilities.