A recent study hints at an exciting possibility: Uranus’s moon Miranda might host a hidden ocean beneath its icy crust, potentially making it suitable for life. Tom Nordheim from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and his team offer new insights into Miranda’s potential ocean. Back in 1986, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft captured close-up images of Miranda, revealing a strange, patchwork landscape of deep grooves, towering cliffs, and odd trapezoidal regions. These features hinted at a unique geological history. Scientists now think Miranda’s varied surface may be linked to tidal forces generated by gravitational interactions with other Uranian moons. Miranda orbits Uranus, a unique planet tilted nearly sideways, resulting in extreme seasons: 42 years of daylight followed by 42 years of darkness at each pole. Uranus’s atmosphere, rich in icy materials like methane, gives the planet its blue-green hue, and the planet hosts at least 27 moons, including Miranda. Uranus and its major moons: Puck, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. Nordheim’s team, including Caleb Strom from the University of North Dakota and Alex Patthoff from the Planetary Science Institute, analyzed old Voyager images and used computer modeling to investigate Miranda’s past. Their findings suggest that around 100 to 500 million years ago, a 62-mile-deep ocean might have existed beneath Miranda’s frozen crust, which is about 19 miles thick. Surprisingly, Miranda’s ocean could have remained warm enough to stay liquid due to “orbital resonance” – gravitational forces causing frictional heating. This phenomenon is also observed on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, where active geysers hint at a subsurface ocean. Although Miranda’s ocean may have thinned, it’s likely not completely frozen. This discovery raises the possibility that Miranda could support life, but more data is needed to confirm the existence of its ocean. To fully explore Miranda’s potential, scientists hope for future missions to Uranus. This small, icy moon could hold secrets to understanding ocean worlds and the potential for extraterrestrial life. The post Could Uranus’s Icy Moon Miranda Harbor a Hidden Ocean — and Life? appeared first on Anomalien.com.