NASA’s Voyager 2 recent images has reignited interest in Miranda, one of Uranus‘ smaller moons. A new research suggests Miranda may have once had an ocean beneath its icy surface. Scientists have long believed that moons of gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn—such as Europa and Enceladus—could conceal hidden oceans. Now, attention is turning to the moons of Uranus as potential sites for these mysterious ocean worlds. Using data captured by Voyager 2 in 1986, a team of planetary scientists, led by Tom Nordheim from Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, recently reanalysed images of Miranda’s distinctive geological formations.
The images show a diverse landscape with grooved terrain, rugged cliffs, and large impact craters. To uncover the origins of these unique features, the team created computer models to simulate Miranda’s internal structure. Their findings show that a large ocean might have existed around 100-500 million years ago. It could have been lying beneath approximately 30 kilometres of surface ice and reaching depths of up to 100 kilometres.
Complex Geology Sheds Light on Miranda’s Icy Past
As per the latest research published in The Institude of Phyics (IOP), Miranda, with a diameter of about 235 kilometres, is relatively small, making the potential discovery of an ocean surprising. According to Nordheim, this revelation expands the idea that some moons around Uranus may hold more secrets than previously thought. He notes that Miranda’s orbital interactions with nearby moons could have generated enough frictional heat within its interior to keep this ocean liquid for millions of years. This “tidal heating” phenomenon is similar to the gravitational forces that keep Europa’s ocean from freezing solid around Jupiter.
Unanswered Questions Await Future Exploration
Although Voyager 2’s data provides tantalising insights, confirming Miranda’s ocean remains out of reach without a dedicated mission. For scientists like Nordheim, these clues make the possibility of a return mission to Uranus even more exciting. By studying its icy moons up close, scientists hope to unlock more mysteries about the formation and evolution of ocean worlds in the outer solar system. For now, researchers continue to maximise data from Voyager 2’s mission, hoping it may still hold more answers to Uranus’ icy, distant moons.
