AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The ongoing search for oceans in our solar system is taking us to Uranus. A new computer model, designed by researchers at the University of Texas, could help a future NASA mission locate liquid water on the icy world's moons.
A new paper, published in Advancing Earth and Space Sciences, revealed how the model could use Uranus' moons wobble to detect the oceans.
Small wobbles of the world's moons occur as they orbit the planet. Based on that wobble, the model can determine how much water, ice, and rock are on the moon.
The moons of Uranus, like many other moons in our solar system, are icy. Scientists theorize that many of these moons might actually have oceans beneath the surface. Liquid water is a key ingredient to life, experts say.
The model was developed by a team at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, a unit with the Jackson School of Geosciences.
Uranus' moons orbit at the same speed it takes for them to orbit the planet. Earth's moon does the same thing.
This means that one side of the 28 moons around the ice giant always faces the surface. According to NASA, all of the planet's inner moons are made of half water and half ice. The outer moons are all likely captured asteroids.
However, while their orbit appears locked, they wobble back and forth. Scientists believe the greater the wobble, the more water is beneath a moon's icy surface.
For instance, a 300-foot wobble results in a 100-mile deep ocean with a 20-mile thick icy shell.
Analyzing a moon's wobble to determine the composition of other moons in our solar system, is a technique used to discover an ocean on Saturn's moon, Enceladus.
UTIG planetary scientist Doug Hemingway developed the model for UT.
“Discovering liquid water oceans inside the moons of Uranus would transform our thinking about the range of possibilities for where life could exist,” Hemmingway said in a press release.
NASA is in the planning stages on a mission to visit the icy world and its moons. This model will help with that planning, helping determine which moons a spacecraft will need to visit.
A new Uranus mission was listed as one of the highest priority objectives in the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032, according to NASA.
The only time a mission visited Uranus was Voyager 2. That mission gathered much of what we know about Uranus, including data on its icy moons.
