Tom Nordheim of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, who worked on the project, said: “Finding evidence of an ocean inside a small object like Miranda is incredibly surprising. »

“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 weird,” he added.

However, in order to confirm whether Miranda actually contains water, experts say further investigative work needs to be carried out.

Caleb Strom, from the University of North Dakota, explained: “We won’t know for sure if there is an ocean until we go back and collect more data.

“For now, we are excited about the possibilities and eager to return to study Uranus and its potential ocean moons in depth.”