The tiny moon Enceladus on the planet Saturn has just become a strong candidate for life after NASA’s Cassini space probe has found a huge ocean of liquid water under miles of ice .
The discovery has been presented by researchers from Italy and the US in the journal Science and admits that, under that icy crust that covers the satellite, about 30 or 40 kilometers under the ice of the South Pole of Enceladus, there is an extensive ocean of about 8 kilometers deep, that is, much larger than the largest of the Great Lakes of North America (Lake Superior).
This finding on one of the moons of the planet Saturn came after using measurements taken by Cassini’s Doppler radar during three reconnaissance flybys that took the space probe about 100 kilometers from the moon’s surface. Thus, Enceladus’ field of gravity was determined and a remarkable asymmetry was observed between its northern and southern hemispheres .
For this reason, the team of scientists suggests “that the data show a negative gravitational anomaly at the south pole, which, however, is not as great as expected according to the deep depression detected by the on-board camera; Therefore, the conclusion is that there must be a denser material below that compensates for the loss of mass: liquid water, approximately 7% denser than ice ”, affirms Luciano Iess scientist from the University of Rome La Sapienza and leader of the investigation.
This large amount of water also rests on a rock base (silicates) instead of ice, so the direct relationship between the two can lead to complex chemical reactions that could be the ideal habitat for the development of extraterrestrial microorganisms .
