Scientists have discovered a huge ocean underneath the icy surface of Saturn's small moon Enceladus, they announced Thursday. U.S. and Italian researchers made the discovery using Cassini, a U.S.-European spacecraft still exploring Saturn and its rings 17 years after its launch from the United States. The ocean of liquid water - as big as North America's Lake Superior - is centered at the south pole of Enceladus and could encompass most of the moon, which has a diameter of 500 kilometers. The data does not show if the ocean extends to the north pole, said lead researcher Luciano Iess of Sapienza University in Rome. At the very least, it is a regional sea 40 kilometers deep under thick ice. Cassini's rudimentary instruments cannot determine whether the moon's ocean holds any form of life. Another mission using more sophisticated equipment would be needed to make such a search.
