An ocean at least as large as Lake Superior lies below a thick layer of ice on a moon of Saturn, new data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft suggests. The results, published in the journal Science, support earlier signs that this small moon has liquid water. That means Saturn's sixth-largest moon could have been -- or could now be -- hospitable to life. This discovery puts Enceladus in an exclusive club of extraterrestrial worlds in the solar system that appear to have a subsurface water ocean. The others are Titan, another moon of Saturn, and Europa, a moon of Jupiter. Callisto and Ganymede, also moons of Jupiter, may also have oceans under ice.
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Enceladus is a small moon of Saturn
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New data suggest a subsurface ocean under its south pole
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Gravity experiment inferred that there must be liquid water there
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Miles of ice likely cover a subsurface ocean that itself is 5 to 10 miles deep
Sending a probe to @placeholder with a drill wouldn't be entirely practical because the liquid water is so far under the ice that it would be hard to access, Lunine said.