Last year, a study proposed that deposits of carbon dioxide ice and other carbon-bearing molecules on Uranus's moon Ariel likely originated from chemical processes inside the moon—possibly even from a subsurface ocean.
The International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Minor Planet Center announced the discovery of three new moons in our solar system Feb. 23. Uranus has one additional moon, while Neptune has picked up two.
Scientists now believe Miranda and Ariel, the smallest and second-smallest of Uranus’s five major moons, could be expelling vapour plumes - which on other moons in the solar system are thought to come from subsurface oceans.
