Get the latest tech news

NASA’s Webb Telescope Finds Evidence For An Ocean World Around Uranus

NASA's Webb Telescope finds evidence for an underground ocean on Uranus moon Ariel, raising interest in future missions to explore the seventh planet and its moons.

gettyNew observations by the James Webb Space Telescope suggest that an icy moon around Uranus may have an underground liquid ocean. However, Ariel’s surface—which has canyons, grooves and smooth regions—was found to contain carbon dioxide ice, particularly on the side of the moon that faces away from the direction it orbits. The carbon dioxide ice on Ariel is thought to be produced by chemical processes in the underground ocean and escapes onto its surface via cracks in its ice—possibly as plumes.

Get the Android app