Saturn's ice-covered moon Enceladus has an ocean of liquid water beneath 20 mile thick ice at the moon's southern pole, reveals a latest research. There are chances that Saturn could be having all the factors needed to support life.

The recent research has confirmed speculations emerging since 2005 when NASA's Cassini spacecraft sent images of water vapor discharges, called tiger stripes, from the moon's surface. The discharge was close to the south pole of the moon.

With the help of gravity assessments gathered by Cassini, researchers have been able to confirm the presence of a massive body of water beneath the frozen surface of Enceladus. "For the first time, we have used a geophysical method to determine the internal structure of Enceladus, and the data suggest that indeed there is a large, possibly regional ocean", said David Stevenson, an expert of the investigation of the insides of planetary bodies.

Three spacecraft flybys provided information to researchers to know the hemispherical symmetry and quadrapole gravity field of Enceladus. After analyzing the same, they got to know that a positive mass abnormality under the moon's surface was counterbalancing negative anomaly in the surrounding area of the planetary body's South Pole.

In fact, the subsurface mass measurements were also found to be consistent with the expectations of an underground ocean that ranges to 50 degrees southern latitudes and is present at depths of 18 to 25 miles.

As per researchers, an ocean at least as large as Lake Superior is present under the thick layer of ice on a moon of Saturn.