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NASA confirms subsurface ocean on Saturn's moon Enceladus


NASA announced on April 3, 2014 that thanks to gravity measurements taken by the space probe Cassini, that Saturn’s moon Enceladus indeed has a vast subsurface ocean that may contain life. Scientists have suspected this ever since a plume of water was detected shooting out of that moon’s south pole.

As with Jupiter’s moon Europa, which also has a subsurface ocean, tidal heating, in this case from Saturn, is likely providing warmth to Enceladus’ under-ice ocean. Water plus warmth could well equal life, which has just put that 500 kilometer diameter moon on a prime list of targets for a follow up planetary mission, along with Europa and another moon of Saturn, Titan.

Any expedition to a moon of Jupiter or Saturn is likely to cost several billion dollars, whether the probe is an orbiter, a lander or, like the Viking expedition to Mars, both. The heavy lift Space Launch System would certainly have enough power to get a large probe to Enceladus or another destination in the outer planets. The question remains, is there the money and the will to do any of that?