Some of the icy moons in the Jupiter and Saturn systems appear to have oceans of liquid water inside them. Although our knowledge of Uranus' moons is more limited, future tours of the Uranian system may be able to detect subsurface oceans. To plan for this, we need to understand how the internal structure of satellites, with and without oceans, relates to observable quantities. New research from the University of Texas Geophysical Institute and the University of California, Santa Cruz shows it may be possible to diagnose the presence or absence of liquid water oceans inside some of Uranus' moons, including Miranda and Ariel. There is, Umbriel, and it is thought that this, combined with measurements of the gravitational field, may provide comprehensive constraints on the internal structure and history of Uranus' moons.
Uranus' four major moons, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon, may have oceanic layers. Salty seas, or salty seas, are found beneath the ice and above water-rich and dry rock layers. Miranda is too small to retain enough heat in the ocean layer. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
When NASA's Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986, it took grainy photos of the large icy moon.
Now, NASA plans to send another spacecraft to Uranus, this time equipped to see if those icy moons hide oceans of liquid water.
The mission is still in the early planning stages, but planetary researchers are preparing by building a new computer model that can be used to detect oceans beneath the ice using only the rover's cameras.
Their computer model works by analyzing the moon's tiny vibrations, or wobbles, as it orbits its parent planet.
From there, you can calculate how much water, ice, and rock is inside. A small wobble means the moon is mostly solid, while a large wobble means its icy surface is floating in an ocean of liquid water.
When combined with gravity data, the model calculates the depth of the ocean and the thickness of the overlying ice.
Dr. Doug Hemingway, a planetary scientist at the University of Texas Geophysical Institute, said: “If we find that Uranus' moons have an inland ocean, it means there are a huge number of potentially habitable worlds across the galaxy. It may mean,” he said.
“The discovery of oceans of liquid water on Uranus' moons will change our thinking about the range of possibilities for life.”
All large moons of the solar system, including the moons of Uranus, are tidally locked.
This means that the same side always faces the parent planet while orbiting, as the gravity matches their rotation.
However, this does not mean that the satellite's rotation is completely fixed; all tidally locked satellites will oscillate back and forth during their orbit.
Determining the extent of the wobble is key to learning whether Uranus' moons have oceans, and if so, how large.
A satellite with an ocean of liquid water splashing inside will wobble more than one that is entirely solid. However, even the largest oceans experience only small wobbles. The moon's rotation can shift by just a few hundred feet as it passes through its orbit.
This is still enough for a passing spacecraft to detect it. In fact, this technique was previously used to confirm that Saturn's moon Enceladus has an internal ocean.
To find out whether the same technique would work on Uranus, Dr. Hemingway and his colleague Dr. Francis Nimmo of the University of California, Santa Cruz performed theoretical calculations on Uranus's five moons, using a variety of the most I came up with a plausible scenario.
Detecting smaller oceans means the spacecraft will need to get closer or carry more powerful cameras.
“The next step is to extend the model to include measurements from other instruments and see how this improves the interior of the satellite,” Dr. Hemingway said.
of the team work Published in a magazine Geophysical Research Letters.
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DJ Hemingway and F. Nemo. 2024. Search for the underground ocean inside Uranus's moon using balance and gravity. Geophysical Research Letters 51 (18): e2024GL110409;doi: 10.1029/2024GL110409
This article is a version of a press release provided by the University of Texas.
Source: www.sci.news
