In a distant part of the universe, so far that we cannot see it with the naked eye, two “worlds of life” have inadvertently… spewed directly into a NASA spacecraft, hinting at an ocean similar to Earth.
According to Space, this intriguing data had been overlooked for nearly four decades as scientists around the world worked to analyze the “treasure” of Voyager 2 – one of NASA’s farthest-flying spacecraft, which has begun its journey into interstellar space.
This data concerns Uranus, the seventh planet in the Solar System. Among its many moons, two intriguing worlds named Ariel and Miranda stand out, named after characters from a Shakespeare play rather than the Greek-Roman deities that typically inspire the names of other planetary moons.
NASA’s radiation and magnetic data from 1986 indicate that they are adding plasma particles to the Uranus system.
The mechanism by which they do this is not yet known, but there is a mechanism that astronomers find quite “teasing”: They may possess subsurface oceans beneath their icy crusts, similar to Jupiter’s Europa or Saturn’s Enceladus – which are famously known as “ocean worlds” of the Solar System.
The way they release jets of material from their oceans is very similar to how Europa and Enceladus have done so.
“It is not surprising that energy particle measurements are a precursor to exploring ocean worlds” – lead author Ian Cohen from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Maryland, USA, stated.
Thus, Dr. Cohen’s research team has “picked up” two additional potential ocean worlds, which NASA has welcomed in its long-running quest to search for worlds capable of harboring life.
This indicates the value of a potential future mission: to send a dedicated spacecraft to approach Uranus and its mysterious moons – of which there are currently 27 known.
