They run rings around Uranus.

New research suggests that a moon orbiting this sophomoric-sounding planet could contain enough natural resources to support extraterrestrial life.

Scientists from Johns Hopkins and the University of North Dakota say the lunar object, named Miranda, has hidden water sources beneath its surface.

This discovery could be a major breakthrough in humanity’s continued search for little green men.

“Finding evidence of an ocean inside a small object like Miranda is incredibly surprising,” said planetary scientist and researcher Tom Nordheim. The results were published in The Journal of Planetary Science.

“This builds on the story that some of these moons on Uranus could be really interesting – that there could be multiple ocean worlds around one of the most distant planets in our solar system, which is both exciting and bizarre,” he added of the study. “remarkable” potential.

The new data builds on NASA research from last year that probed Uranus moons Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon for evidence of similar deep, water-filled gorges that could show signs of extraterrestrial biological life.

If nothing else, it provides much clearer context for how the solar system formed, added researcher Sherry Fieber-Beyer.

Specifically, it can show how the movement of giant planets may have led to the creation of asteroids and moons, she explained.

Using images taken by the Voyager 2 space probe in 1986, the “Frankenstein-like jumble of grooved terrain” on Miranda’s southern hemisphere was reanalyzed to see if the uneven ground is the result of forces of tide interacting with heating – or its absence –. on the moon.

“This research helps us understand what the requirements are for an icy moon to be an ocean world, which is relevant for assessing the habitability of icy satellites in the outer solar system,” researcher Caleb Strom said of the study of cracks in the moon of Uranus.

“We don’t know enough about Uranian satellites to say whether there might be life on them, but understanding what factors would cause subsurface oceans to be present on them is an important step in answering that question.”

It was found that Miranda probably contained an ocean beneath its icy surface around 100 to 500 million years ago.

Researchers believe the ocean is the result of tidal forces pulling between Miranda’s gravity and other moons near the planet. The friction caused by the pull would be enough to create a heat source that would keep the moon’s interior warm.

“This result was a big surprise for the team,” Strom said.

Today, the research team speculates that Miranda’s interior has not yet completely frozen and that an ocean still potentially exists beneath the surface to this day.

“We won’t know for sure if there is an ocean until we collect more data,” Nordheim explained.

“We are extracting the last possible piece of science from Voyager 2 images. For now, we are excited about the possibilities and eager to return to study Uranus and its potential ocean moons in depth,” he said.