Dhaka, Nov. 29 -- Saturn's small moon Mimas, nicknamed the "Death Star" for its giant crater, may have a hidden ocean beneath its icy shell, researchers from UC Davis said. A slight wobble in the moon's movement suggests the presence of liquid water below the surface.

Icy moons like Mimas, Enceladus, and Miranda are heated by tidal forces from their parent planets and neighboring moons. This heat can melt the ice, forming subsurface oceans. On smaller moons, the ice layer is unlikely to crack, allowing water beneath to exist as liquid, solid, and gas simultaneously, potentially producing a boiling ocean.

Max Rudolph, professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Davis, said the research aims to understand how icy moons evolve over mil...