AN OCEAN that could support life lies deep under the icy surface of Saturn moon Enceladus, scientists have confirmed.

The ocean is beneath 18 to 24 miles of ice and could be larger than the biggest of America's Great Lakes.

Scientists made the discovery after measuring anomalies picked up by the American space agency Nasa's Cassini spacecraft, which has spent 10 years studying Saturn's moons.

The new findings, reported in the journal Science, confirm that a large ocean about six miles deep lies beneath the moon's southern polar region.

"This water ocean may extend halfway or more towards the equator in every direction," said co-author Professor David Stevenson, from the California Institute of Technology.