NASA scientists have detected and tracked a slight wobble in the Saturnian moon Enceladus which means that the sub-surface body of water on the moon must be far more extensive than first thought, BBC reported.
Using pictures from the Cassini probe, a study spanning seven years, they have concluded this flutter would be much less if the icy crust was connected directly to Enceladus’ rock core, the report said.
The new evidence is being termed as strong support for the idea of an intervening, global mass of liquid.
“If the surface and core were rigidly connected, the core would provide so much dead weight that the wobble would be far smaller than we observe it to be,” said Matthew Tiscareno, a Cassini scientist based at the Seti Institute but previously affiliated to Cornell University, US.
“This proves that there must be a global layer of liquid separating the surface from the core.”
Activity on Enceladus has been one of the great discoveries on the Cassini mission, which arrived at Saturn in 2004.
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