Earlier this year, researchers discovered that a vast liquid ocean lurks beneath the icy shell of Saturn's tiny moon, Mimas. Now the same team may have discovered how it was created.
New research suggests that as Mimas' orbit around Saturn became less flattened, or less "eccentric" due to the ringed planet's pull, its icy shell melted and thinned. This would have created a vast ocean somewhere between 2 million and 25 million years ago, making this subsurface sea relatively young for a solar system feature.
