News Planetary Science

Boiling oceans may sculpt the surfaces of small icy moons

Gravitational heating may thin ice shells enough to drop pressure and release vapor

Uranus' moon Miranda is seen on a black background. While parts of the moon look cratered like Earth's moon, other parts are strangely scarred.

Unique geologic features on Uranus’ moon Miranda (seen here in a photo taken by Voyager 2 in 1986) may have been created by thinning of the moon’s icy shell.

Kevin M. Gill/JPL/NASA

By Mara Johnson-Groh

Small, icy moons might be boiling under their surface.