Saturn's Moon Enceladus Has Global Subsurface Ocean

An anonymous reader writes: NASA's Cassini probe has made another fascinating discovery: Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons, has an underground ocean spanning its entire globe. Researchers were trying to explain why the moon wobbles as it orbits Saturn, and they eventually came to the conclusion that its outer shell must be completely detached from its core. "The mechanisms that might have prevented Enceladus' ocean from freezing remain a mystery. Thomas and his colleagues suggest a few ideas for future study that might help resolve the question, including the surprising possibility that tidal forces due to Saturn's gravity could be generating much more heat within Enceladus than previously thought."

Comments

Re:Perpetual energy machine

[Brett Buck]

No. Energy is being taken out every time. At some point it will become tidally locked, just like the Moon (of earth) and then the heating will stop.