NASA’s New Mission to Uranus: Detecting Hidden Oceans Beneath Icy Moons

NASA plans to send a spacecraft to Uranus to explore its moons, which may have hidden oceans beneath their icy surfaces. This mission follows the Voyager 2 flyby in 1986, which captured early images of Uranus and its moons.

Researchers at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) are developing a computer model to identify water oceans beneath the ice. The model analyzes the wobbles in a moon’s spin to estimate its internal structure. Less wobble suggests a solid interior, while more wobble indicates a liquid ocean beneath the ice. By combining wobble data with gravity measurements, scientists can map the ocean’s depth and the thickness of the overlying ice.

Uranus and its moons belong to a class of planets called ice giants. Finding liquid water in these moons could suggest many similar worlds in the galaxy might also support life. UTIG scientist Doug Hemingway emphasizes the importance of discovering these oceans, as they could change our understanding of where life might exist.

The moons around Uranus are tidally locked, meaning the same side always faces the planet. However, they still exhibit tiny oscillations that can reveal information about their internal structure. Detecting these wobbles is crucial, as they allow astronomers to differentiate between solid interiors and those containing liquid water.

The model suggests that if Uranus’s moon Ariel wobbles by 300 feet, it likely has a 100-mile-deep ocean under a 20-mile-thick ice shell. The research team hopes to enhance their model by incorporating additional instruments for a more accurate picture of the moons’ interiors.

This study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, will assist NASA’s mission scientists in designing the spacecraft more effectively. The goal is to refine the detection methods for potential oceans before the spacecraft arrives at Uranus.

Researchers at UTIG, a part of the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin, aim to determine the best methods for identifying these hidden oceans, which could vastly expand our understanding of where life might be found beyond Earth.