Uranus' moon Ariel may have hidden a 170-km-deep ocean

A study in Icarus suggests that Uranus' moon Ariel may once have had an ocean more than 170 km deep beneath its icy crust. Researchers modeled tidal stresses and linked them to surface fractures, estimating a past orbital eccentricity of about 0.04.

• Ariel's subsurface ocean may have been over 170 km deep
• Past orbital eccentricity estimated at 0.04, 40 times today's value
• Surface fractures explained by tidal stress modeling
• Similar results were previously reported for Uranus' moon Miranda