Enceladus Underground Ocean

It has been known for a few years now that liquid water was present on Saturn's moon, Enceladus, but the question was, how much water was there?  Cassini data has recently revealed the likely extent of the water, and it appears to be a fully-fledged ocean underneath the ice.

Water Plumes on Enceladus

According to the data, the mass of the liquid water is only about that of Lake Superior, but considering that Enceladus is only 300 miles across, this translates to a potentially moon-wide ocean that is on average 6 miles deep, underneath about 20 miles of ice.

Cassini was able to detect the presence of liquid water through precise gravitational mapping.  Simply put, Cassini's close encounters with Enceladus were gravitationally affected more than it should have been had there been only solid ice.  This indicates the presence of liquid water, which is more dense and would give the moon slightly more mass.

As of right now, scientists are not sure if the ocean is global or not, because Cassini's close fly-bys were over the southern hemisphere.  However, they are very certain that an ocean exists under the southern hemisphere.  This discovery puts Enceladus right at the top of candidates for alien life in our solar system.  It also becomes the easiest target for further exploration into extraterrestrial life, because it is constantly shooting off water into space, which a probe can analyze.  Cassini's basic instruments have already detected carbon and other basic organic molecules, a more advanced instrument could potentially detect far more.  This alone makes it a more inviting target than Europa, which is similar in many ways but may not have active water jets.

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