Saturn moon offers potential to explore new life

Miamas was discovered in 1789 by an English astronomer named William Herschael,and Miamas was named after a giant in Greek mythology. Scientists have discovered that Miamas harbors an ocean beneath its surface and may have conditions for habitability. A French team of scientists analyzed changes in Miamas’ orbit and reported on Wednesday that a hidden ocean 12-18 miles beneath the crust. A French co-author was quoted as saying “Miamas was probably the most unlikely place to look for a global ocean or liquid water more generally. So, that looks like a potentially habitable world. But nobody knows how much time is needed for life to arise.” This ocean is believed to fill about half of Miamas volume. Yet it represents only 1.2%-1.4% of Earth’s oceans. Miamas is believed to be between 5 million-15 million years old, and the ocean would have an overall temperature of around freezing, but at the sea floor scientists believe the temperature could be much warmer. 

You might be wondering “why do I care about any of this?” The answer is that because this ocean is so young this gives scientists an opportunity to study the origins of life, i.e., how it begins, how long it takes to begin, what would become of the species on this planet, how another species functions entirely. We would finally meet aliens. We could teach them things and vice versa. We could study the different types of bacteria and atoms that make up their species, etc. You get the point. This is an amazing and remarkable discovery, so now we just wait for life to come about.