A study published online Tuesday found that Pluto probably has an underground ocean.
The study used a computer model of Pluto’s temperatures to determine that if the dwarf planet’s ocean froze millions or billions of years ago, it would have caused the entire planet to shrink. Recent observations from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) probe New Horizons, however, show that Pluto is expanding. This means that Pluto’s oceans probably still exist.
“Thanks to the incredible data returned by New Horizons, we were able to observe tectonic features on Pluto’s surface, update our thermal evolution model with new data and infer that Pluto most likely has a subsurface ocean today,” Noah Hammond, the study’s lead author and a graduate student at Brown University, told SciNews Tuesday. “New Horizons showed was that there are extensional tectonic features, which indicate that Pluto underwent a period of global expansion. A subsurface ocean that was slowly freezing over would cause this kind of expansion.”
Pluto’s ocean is likely buried under a shell of ice more than 180 miles thick. The ice insulates the ocean enough to prevent it from totally freezing, effectively keeping the dwarf planet somewhat warm. The ocean could even be responsible for unusual geologic activity in Pluto.
The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters.
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