It’s one of the biggest unanswered questions in science: If there’s life beyond Earth, where is it?
While you might think the answer is “far, far away,” it might surprisingly be a lot closer to home than we thought.
A new study suggests that aliens could be hiding just 1.7 billion miles from Earth — on Uranus’ moon, Miranda.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory have found evidence of an ocean beneath Miranda’s surface that they think could be habitable.
“It’s incredibly surprising to find evidence of an ocean in a small object like Miranda,” said Tom Nordheim, co-author of the study.
“It helps build the narrative that some of these moons on Uranus could be very interesting — that there could be multiple ocean worlds around one of the most distant planets in our solar system, which is both exciting and bizarre.”
Based on the findings, the researchers are calling for a new mission to Uranus.
“We are excited about the possibilities and eager to study Uranus and its potential ocean moons in depth,” Mr. Nordheim added.
A new study suggests aliens could be hiding just 1.7 billion miles from Earth — on Uranus’ moon, Miranda
It’s one of the biggest unanswered questions in science: If there’s life beyond Earth, where is it? While you might think the answer is “far, far away,” it could surprisingly be a lot closer to home than we thought
Among the 288 moons orbiting the planets in our solar system, scientists say Miranda “stands out.”
Images taken in 1986 by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft showed the moon’s southern hemisphere to be a “Frankenstein-like jumble” of rutted terrain.
The researchers compared this landscape to the squares on a quilt — and suspected it could be the result of tidal forces within the moon.
In their new study, the team reexamined these images to understand what the moon’s interior might look like.
First, the team mapped the moon’s surface features, including its cracks and ridges.
They then developed a computer model to test different possible structures of the moon’s interior.
Their analysis showed that the interior that best matched the surface was a vast ocean beneath Miranda’s icy surface, some 100 to 500 million years ago.
This ocean was no more than 30 kilometers below the surface and stretched for at least 100 kilometers, according to the model.
The only spacecraft to visit Uranus was NASA’s Voyager 2 in 1986 – and this isn’t the first time scientists have called for a new mission
Since Miranda’s radius is only 235 kilometres, this suggests that the ocean would have filled almost half of the moon’s body.
Caleb Strom, who led the research, said: “That result was a big surprise to the team.”
The researchers aren’t sure if the ocean is still there, and say that if it is, it’s relatively thin.
“But the suggestion of an ocean on one of the most distant moons in the solar system is remarkable,” Strom added.
Based on the findings, the researchers are calling for a new mission to Uranus to re-image the moon.
“We won’t know for sure if there’s an ocean until we go back and get more data,” Nordheim said.
“We’re getting the last bit of science we can from the Voyager 2 images.”
The only spacecraft to visit Uranus was NASA’s Voyager 2 in 1986 — and this isn’t the first time scientists have called for a new mission.
In 2022, a report from the National Academy of Sciences urged NASA to launch a mission to Uranus.
The report called Uranus “one of the most intriguing bodies in the solar system” and said studying it would improve our understanding of ice giants in general.
The group said the spacecraft would need to operate in the system for several years, orbiting the ice giant and sending a probe into its atmosphere.