Thursday, April 4, 2024

With an interactive Mimas image!

 

This article, about the unmistakable moon of Saturn, Mimas, potentially having an ocean under its crust, is quite interesting.

But the interactive Mimas image in the article, which you can rotate any which way, is fantastically cool. So read the article and then roll Mimas around a couple of times. 

That's no Moon; It's an Ocean World

"There is no way to explain both the rotation and the orbital motion of Mimas with a rigid core,” Lainey said. “Whatever the size and whatever the shape of the silicate core, there is no way you can have a rigid interior. You must have liquid water and an icy shell that slips on the surface.”

Their simulation suggests that Mimas’s subsurface ocean rests under 20–30 kilometers of ice. As much as 50%–60% of Mimas’s total volume could be liquid water, Lainey said."


Mimas and the rings



No comments: