The Cassini-Huygens mission has been underway since 2004. Just lately, NASA makes a breakthrough as its Saturn project brings in a new finding.
A subsurface ocean has been located under the icy surface of the ring-wrapped planet's moon Dione. The celestial body discovered in 1684 by Giovanni Domenico Cassini joins the Titan and the Enceladus as Saturn's moons to have huge bodies of water embedded within them.
According to the study, which has been published in the Geophysical Research Letters journal, researchers from the Belgium's Royal Observatory have assessed the gravity data taken by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft. The ocean's existence, which is tens of kilometers beneath the lunar rocky core, explains the gravity presence.
Astronomers also suspect that Jupiter's moons, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede also have buried oceans. To a certain extent, even Pluto is thought to also harbor a vast water area.
Based on Dione's surface, Mikael Beuthe, the research's lead author, observes that Saturn has an active past. The icy crust cannot withstand stressful activities. Tension will eventually break the surface to pieces.
On the other hand, the moon Enceladus has been found to have spring water gushing to life close to its South Pole surface. As Dione's neighbor wobbles while orbiting the planet, scientists point out that the librations, a back-and-forth oscillation, are just too big for a celestial body that is coated in ice. If the libration is small, it is being perceived that the crust is thicker. It has been determined that the crust of Enceladus is detached from the rocky interior.
Dione also librates but under the radar. With a deeply-embedded ocean, the oscillation movement is difficult to detect.
Attilio Rivoldini, co-author of the research, points out that rock-water relations signify the presence of key nutrients and energy source which are both critical to life. With the ocean present, it is likely that Dione has been able to sustain microbial existence.
