Saturn's 'Death Star' Moon May Hide a Massive, Shockingly Young Ocean

Trouble viewing? View in your browser. View all Scientific American publications.

    

February 08, 2024

This week, we're realizing that the tiny gray orb swimming into view ahead of our spacecraft is no moon; it's an oceanic world. Our lead story this week discusses a newfound—and shockingly young—ocean beneath the icy crust of Mimas, a small moon of Saturn that bears a more-than-passing resemblance to the Death Star from Star Wars. The implications are at least as deep as the unplumbed abyss of Mimas itself, and reinforce an ongoing paradigm shift in our understanding of the prospects for habitability and life in the frigid, starlight-starved outer expanses of planetary systems. Elsewhere this week, we have stories about sex in space, glorious new images of Jupiter's hypervolcanic moon Io, major workforce setbacks for NASA's Mars sample-return plans, and much, much more. Enjoy!

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics @LeeBillings

Planetary Science Saturn's 'Death Star' Moon May Hide a Massive, Shockingly Young Ocean A surprisingly youthful ocean within Mimas, a tiny moon of Saturn, has big implications for the solar system's history—and for finding life beyond Earth By Robin George Andrews

Planetary Science Jupiter's Supervolcanic Moon Io Dazzles in Photos from NASA's Close Flybys During close flybys of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io, NASA's Juno spacecraft captured stunning "bonus science" about the nightmarish world By Meghan Bartels

Space Exploration Mars Mission's Budget Problems Force NASA Layoffs NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is eliminating nearly 600 workers due to funding shortfalls for the space agency's Mars Sample Return mission By Mike Wall,SPACE.com

Space Exploration When Will We Finally Have Sex In Space? We're talking about the big bang—but not in the way you might think.  By Lee Billings,Alexa Lim | 12:43

Defense The Government's Former UFO Hunter Found Something More Concerning than Aliens Sean Kirkpatrick looked into the skies and deep into government archives for extraterrestrials. What he found is, to him, more concerning than little green men. By Daniel Vergano,Jeffery DelViscio | 13:21

Astronomy Here Are the Best Places to View the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Weather predictions and population statistics show the best spots to see the total solar eclipse over North America this April By Katie Peek

Astronomy How to Explain April's Total Solar Eclipse to Kids The total solar eclipse over North America this April is a great opportunity for kids to understand the dance of the Earth, sun and moon By Stephanie Pappas

Astronomy How You Can Participate in Solar Eclipse Research Volunteers can join several crowdsourced science projects during the total solar eclipse in April to contribute to research By Sarah Scoles

Astronomy Why Does a Solar Eclipse Move West to East? Here's why the path of a solar eclipse travels in the opposite direction of that of the sun By Stephanie Pappas

Planetary Science When We Find Earth 2.0, What's Next? We're looking for another Earth—but how likely is it we'll find a duplicate of home? By Phil Plait

Climate Change New NASA Earth Science Mission Could Change the Way We See Our Planet NASA's PACE mission aims to increase our understanding of Earth's carbon cycle, pollution particles and ocean plankton By Chelsea Harvey,E&E News

Mathematics How String Theory Solved Math's Monstrous Moonshine Problem A concept from theoretical physics helped confirm the strange connection between two completely different areas of mathematics By Manon Bischoff

Particle Physics Large Hadron Collider's $17-Billion Successor Moves Forward A feasibility study on CERN's Future Circular Collider identifies where and how the machine could be built—but its construction is far from assured By Elizabeth Gibney,Davide Castelvecchi,Nature magazine

Planetary Science NASA's Asteroid Samples May Come from a Long-Lost Ocean World A first look at materials from asteroid Bennu sparks speculation that the space rock was once part of an ancient, watery protoplanet By Leonard David,SPACE.com

QUOTE OF THE DAY "The implications give one pause because they're very surprising" Francis Nimmo, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, on a newfound youthful ocean within Mimas, a moon of Saturn

LATEST ISSUES

Questions?   Comments?

Download the Scientific American App

To view this email as a web page, go here. You received this email because you opted-in to receive email from Scientific American. To ensure delivery please add newsletters@scientificamerican.com to your address book. Unsubscribe     Manage Email Preferences     Privacy Policy     Contact Us

Scientific American

1 New York Plaza, FDR Dr, Floor 46, New York, NY 10004

Unsubscribe - Unsubscribe Preferences