Icy moons in our solar system may have boiling oceans — but life could potentially still survive

A photo of the moon Enceladus with a blue plume of steam underneath it as it sits in the darkness of space.

Small icy moons in the outer reaches of our solar system may hide boiling oceans underneath their surfaces, a new study finds.

Previous research found that some of the icy moons in the outer solar system, such as Saturn's moon Enceladus, are not frozen solid. Instead, they may host oceans between their ice shells and rocky cores. Because on Earth, there is virtually life wherever there is water, this has raised the hope that such hidden oceans may be the best sites in our solar system to look for extraterrestrial life.