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Cassini gravity measurements and a new model indicate that Dione may have a subsurface ocean like several other bodies in the solar system:
Saturn's moon Dione has joined the growing list of watery bodies in our solar system. Data from NASA's Cassini probe indicate that a liquid ocean some 20 miles deep exists far below the icy surface of the moon. This means that its interior looks similar to two other Saturnian moons, Titan and Enceladus, both of which hide vast oceans beneath a thin crust of ice. Dione is likely different in at least one respect though: the data indicate it's ocean buried much deeper.
The researchers based their analysis on gravity measurements taken by the Cassini spacecraft as it flew by Dione, tracking subtle shifts in the trajectory of the craft due to Dione's gravitational pull. Similar methods have been used before, but the data always seem to indicate that Dione had no such subterranean ocean. The new data, combined with a revised model of how the moon's crust should behave, changes that assumption. [...] Dione now joins Titan, Enceladus, Europa, Ganymede and Pluto as the solar system's wettest places — beyond Earth. And, given that we seem to find new bodies of liquid water every time we take a closer look at our solar system, more are likely to come.
Enceladus' and Dione's floating ice shells supported by minimum stress isostasy (DOI: 10.1002/2016GL070650) (DX)
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Wednesday October 05 2016, @01:49PM
So this is all very exciting stuff obviously, because these oceans could hold life. Amazing as that discovery would be, however, it doesn't help us humans all that much in our quest to colonise the solar system / galaxy / universe. If life was found swimming about on one of these moons, let's say Europa, then I could imagine a manned research base on that moon to study the native life, but any thoughts of terraforming that world or exploiting its resources on an industrial scale would go out the airlock. That world would essentially be closed off to us.
Also, imagine if we found an abundance of life In Europa's ocean, but then found Dione and Enceladus to be completely barren. I daresay we could take those barren worlds for ourselves, but by the time we have the ability to do that we could far more easily and comfortably live in an O'Neill cylinder in orbit, mining asteroids, comets and planetary rings. What to do with those empty worlds then? Leave them be and let nature take its course? Use them for tourism/ sightseeing / extreme sports? Or maybe we could transplant life from Europa to the other worlds, just to make the universe that little bit more interesting and create one more little outpost against entropy.
However the fact that there are so many of these subsurface oceans in our little patch of sky does suggest something else: That, galaxy-wide, life adapted to such environments might well be more common than drysiders like ourselves. What's more, it seems likely that there are far more viable habitats for sub-ice-oceanic life to colonise than for the likes of us. It may be that in order to colonise the galaxy we have to look beyond one specie or even one ecosystem, and venture forth in co-operation with our neighbours. It might be that ten thousand years from now the life forms that venture forth past the heliosphere will have flippers and gills rather than legs and lungs, but they will owe to us the engineering and technology that takes them there.
There's a decent scifi novel in there somewhere.
(Score: 2) by jimtheowl on Wednesday October 05 2016, @04:38PM
Who says that this is humanity's quest?
What about exploring, studying and understanding the solar system / galaxy / universe and ourselves first?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday October 05 2016, @09:26PM
It's more like: who can stop humans from taking advantage of the solar system's abundant resources and spreading the human race further than Earth generally? The U.S. or U.N.? Maybe initially, but not for too long.
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(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday October 05 2016, @08:21PM
I like that idea. It's also possible that intelligent life has evolved on Earth before, and has long since departed, having cleaned up after themselves to make way for other intelligences to evolve here.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 06 2016, @02:05AM
Well, So Long and thanks for all the fish!