Scientists believe that Saturn's Mimas moon, which brings to mind the famous "Death Star" from "Star Wars," may have a global ocean lurking deep beneath its surface.
Publishing their findings in Science, the researchers tapped data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft to observe the unusual moon, which "wobbles" as it orbits the ringed planet, Reuters reported.
"The ocean hypothesis sounds unlikely because ... Mimas' heavily cratered surface has shown no evidence of liquid water, thermal heating or geological activities," the scientists wrote in the study.
Despite being an unusual hypothesis, the speculation that Mimas is hiding an ocean miles beneath its icy exterior is supported by the way that Saturn's gravitational pull yanks on the moon.
"This ocean will sustain as long as the orbit is eccentric," Radwan Tajeddine, a research associate in Cornell University's astronomy department, told Reuters in an email.
Erratic tugging from Saturn as Mimas comes closer and then moves farther away could cause enough friction to heat and melt the moon's ice, creating a hidden ocean.
Besides possibly containing an ocean, Mimas could be wobbling due to an unusually shaped core.
"The core might be elongated--shaped like a rugby ball," said Tajeddine, as quoted by National Geographic.
Either way, Mimas has an enormous wobble for a moon that measures around 250 miles in diameter.
"We expected it would wobble by about three kilometers [1.8 miles] once every orbit," said Tajeddine, "but it turned out to be twice that."
The wobbling moon could prove to be another spot where scientists continue to search for life in other worlds.
"If Mimas does have an ocean, this would definitely be another interesting body in the solar system to be added to list of potential 'life-friendly' environments," Tajeddine told Reuters.
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