Ariel Moon of Uranus May Have Hidden 100-Mile-Deep Ocean

Scientists have reported that Uranus’ moon Ariel may once have harbored a subsurface ocean more than 100 miles deep beneath its fractured icy shell. The study, titled “We just need to go back,” presents evidence that the moon’s interior once contained liquid water, now frozen or otherwise lost.

The discovery mirrors similar findings from the nearby moon Miranda, suggesting that the Uranian system could contain multiple hidden ocean worlds. Both moons exhibit geological features that imply past subsurface oceans, raising the possibility that other icy bodies in the outer Solar System may also have once possessed liquid reservoirs.

Ariel may have once contained a subsurface ocean more than 100 miles deep beneath its fractured icy shell, and similar evidence from Miranda points to multiple hidden ocean worlds in the Uranian system.