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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: 3, Interesting) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Wednesday October 05 2016, @04:33PM
Let's skip over all the conspiracy nonsense and address the only vaguely sane point in the above rant:
NASA is siphoning FIFTEEN (15) million dollars per day,
What exactly do you think NASA does with that money? Do you think they shovel it into the fuel tanks of the spacecraft and then burn it all up?
No, they spend it. They spend it on materials, fuels, high-tech parts, tools and equipment. Most of all, they pay the wages of thousands of engineers, administrators, astronauts, IT folks, telephone sanitizers and who knows who else.
In other words, those FIFTEEN (15) million dollars per day get pumped straight back in to the economy, enabling people to support businesses and businesses to build and invent cool stuff and in fact entire industries to exist at all. Oh, and, you know, build cool stuff and advance human knowledge and explore other planets and invent and test out all kinds of new technologies in the process.
If you want to talk about wasted money look at the military, which makes NASA look like a homeless guy begging for change.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 05 2016, @09:21PM
You are arguing over the price of beans with a dude who denies the existence of beans.