NASA’s spacecraft, New Horizons, picked up a new analysis that may mean that there is a subsurface ocean on Pluto! How did they deduce this? Sputnik Planitia is a low lying plain on Pluto and according to the new images it is very well aligned with Pluto’s tidal axis.
It’s so certain that scientists are saying that the odds of this being a coincidence is about 5%. Due to a reorientation of Pluto, courtesy of its moon Charon, it threw the Sputnik Planitia to the opposite side of the planet. The extra weight that reoriented Pluto has got to be none other than water. This is leading NASA to believe that the elliptical hole in the planet is hiding an ocean beneath the surface.
The best part? It can’t be frozen! There’s very likely a liquid ocean under Pluto’s surface! There are many reasons for NASA’s conclusion but none so obvious as photo’s scientific probability, and photographs.
You can read more about this awesome concept from the authors James Keane of Arizona and Francis Nimmo of US Santa Cruz. This discovery could mean many things for Pluto and what’s below Pluto’s surface! Every new discovery brings greater understanding of planets and the solar system.
What to know more about Pluto? … get it from Nasa direct!
Leave a Reply