Saturn's Moon Enceladus Is Home to a Global Ocean

[rdunk]

It is a bit interesting, that as the more we learn about our solar system neighbors, the more differences we find in its spacial "hard components"! Wouldn't it be "funny", if at some future point we likewise learn that our own Moon holds a bountiful supply of water beneath its surface??

SCIENCE  SPACE

SCIENCE  SEP 15 2015, 5:50 PM ET
by KEITH WAGSTAFF

Saturn's moon Enceladus is home to a global ocean hidden under its icy exterior, according to a new study.

Previous research indicated a sea hidden below the south pole, but now scientists believe the body of water extends across the entire moon.

Using data gathered by NASA's Casini spacecraft, researchers noticed that Enceladus wobbled in a certain way as it orbited Saturn. That wobble indicated that the moon's icy crust didn't extend all the way to its core — instead, it rested on a global ocean, the researchers concluded.

Their work was published this week in the journal Icarus.

"This was a hard problem that required years of observations, and calculations involving a diverse collection of disciplines, but we are confident we finally got it right," Peter Thomas, lead author of the study and a Cassini imaging team member at Cornell University, said.

More: http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/saturns-moon-enceladus-home-global-ocean-n427921

[zorgon]

It is a bit interesting, that as the more we learn about our solar system neighbors, the more differences we find in its spacial "hard components"! Wouldn't it be "funny", if at some future point we likewise learn that our own Moon holds a bountiful supply of water beneath its surface??

Well there is a frozen lake at the south pole Clementine revealed that in 1994 and there was a Pentagon press release about it Oct 1996 

Q: What's the presumptive volume of it then, and how did you discern that?

A: As I mentioned, what we can tell from looking at the radar return is roughly the area that is covered by this. Assuming it reflects ice like ice on Mercury -- making that assumption. That's been well looked at. Then in order to see this back scatter effect, this roadside reflector effect; it's estimated that we have to see some number of wavelengths of our radar into the ice. In reviewing the paper, several of the reviewers posited we probably need to see somewhere between 50 and 100 wavelengths. So our wavelength is about six inches. So at the thickest case, it's roughly 50 feet.

Q: That translates to what in volume?

A: We were very conservative in the press release, but if you take basically 100 square kilometers by roughly 50 feet, you get a volume of something like a quarter of a cubic mile, I think it's on that order. It's a considerable amount, but it's not a huge glacier or anything like that.

Q: Can you compare that with something you know?

A: It's a lake. A small lake.

The DoD link is currently moving sites but we posted it here in 2006
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/41Group_Lunar_FYEO/02files/FYEO_Lunar_03.html

SCIENCE  SPACE

SCIENCE  SEP 15 2015, 5:50 PM ET
by KEITH WAGSTAFF

Saturn's moon Enceladus is home to a global ocean hidden under its icy exterior, according to a new study.

Sometimes I wonder if I exist  

NASA has been preparing a sub to go to Europa and/or Enceladus to burrow through the ice to that ocean.  That both moons are balls of water has been known for a long time

ENDURANCE ~ Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic Antarctic Explore

NASA Plans Diving Mission to Europa


http://umlr.net/03files/DEPTHX.html#ENDURANCE

DEPTHX ~ Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer

http://umlr.net/03files/DEPTHX.html

2013
"A mission to explore Lake Vostok in Antarctica, which is believed to have been isolated from the rest of the world by kilometers of thick ice for millions of years, would of course be the 'Holy Grail' mission, and a real proof of concept for a future mission to explore the oceans thought to exist underneath some of the frozen moons in the solar system, such as Europa and Enceladus," Jonsson explained. -
http://www.astrobio.net/news-exclusive/tiny-submersible-could-search-for-life-in-europas-ocean/





Both moons have Geysers spotted by Casini