BBC Sky at Night - UK (2021-08)

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Prof Lewis Dartnell

is an astrobiologist

at the University

of Westminster

The moons of

Uranus, including

(clockwise from

top) Miranda,

Umbriel and

Ariel, could have

oceans under

their surface

Lewis Dartnell was reading... In Search of Subsurface Oceans within the

Uranian Moons by CJ Cochrane et al.

Read it online at: https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.

CUTTING EDGE

Our experts examine the hottest new research

16 BBC Sky at Night Magazine August 2021

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Hunting oceans on

Uranus’s moons

The planet’s magnetic field could help to

see beneath the icy surface of its moons

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oceans, and it is these that are interacting with

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Detecting oceans

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magnetic sounding to detect oceans within their

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“Does evidence of

recent tectonic and

cryovolcanic activity

[on both Miranda and

Ariel] suggest these

moons have

subsurface liquid

water oceans?”

SIM

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