Cassini spacecraft has discovered strong evidence for the presence of an ocean of water beneath the frozen surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.
NASA scientists believe the found ocean is likely made of water and has a depth of a couple of hundred kilometers. It seems to cover the entire surface of foggy moon, beneath 100 kilometers of ice.
The result was announced during Cassini's six passes over Titan, which was orbiting Saturn, between 2004 and 2011.
The "evidence is strong that Titan is squishy," claimed the planetary scientist Jonathan Lunine from Cornell University.
After gravity measurements, researchers identified several deformations in Titan's interior that indicated the presence of a layer of liquid sloshing around.
Scientists used signals beamed back by Cassini to measure distortions in Titan's gravitational field.
During the fly-bys, they tracked minute changes in the pitch of radio signals passing between the spacecraft and the Earth to record how much Saturn's gravity had deformed the moon.
The data revealed something strange happening in the moon's interior, which was a sign of the presence of liquid water.
“The measurement is pretty conclusive about the existence of an internal ocean," said lead researcher Luciano Iess, from Sapienza University in Rome, Italy.
Scientists speculated about the possibility of life evolving in the hidden oceans; however, there are doubts about whether anything could survive on icy Titan.