A reanalysis of Voyager data suggests that four of Uranus moons may have oceans tucked between their cores and icy crusts.
Scientists recently reanalyzed data from the Voyager spacecraft that flew by Uranus in the 1980s and found that four of Uranus' largest moons — Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon — may be warm enough to host liquid oceans. In Titania and Oberon, these oceans might even be warm enough to potentially support life, according to a recent study in the Journal of Geophysical Research .
The new study integrated 1980s Voyager 2 data with information on other icy moons such as Pluto's Charon and Saturn's Enceladus drawn from more recent NASA missions such as Galileo, Cassini, Dawn, and New Horizons. Uranus has 27 moons, but the researchers focused on the five largest, which are Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon and Miranda. Of these, Ariel is the smallest at 720 miles across, while Titania is the largest at 980 miles across.
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