Wednesday, November 26, 2025

The Strange Physics Beneath Icy Moons

Europa, one of the icy moons of Jupiter (Credit : NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill)

Beneath the frozen shells of Saturn's tiny moons, hidden oceans might occasionally boil, not from heat, but from dropping pressure as ice melts from below. This strange phenomenon could explain the bizarre geology of worlds like Miranda and Mimas, and reshape our understanding of where to search for life in the outer Solar System. A new study reveals how these distant water worlds operate under physics unlike anything on Earth.



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