‘Hot start’ theory says Pluto once had a surface ocean

[Mike Wehner]

• New research suggests Pluto once had an ocean on its surface.
• Evidence for the theory comes from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft which spotted unique cracks on the dwarf planet's surface.
• Pluto may even still host a subsurface ocean, but researchers don't know for sure.

Pluto — the once-and-possibly-future planet — is a chilly place. It orbits the Sun at an incredible distance and, as such, it's absolutely freezing cold on its surface. In fact, "freezing" is putting it mildly, as the planet's surface is thought to be as cold as -400 degrees Fahrenheit in some places. With temperatures like that, you'd never imagine the planet being able to host liquid water on its surface, but new research suggests that things were much different long ago.

The study, published in Nature Geoscience, uses observations from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft to paint a picture of young Pluto as a much warmer place. In fact, the researchers say the planet was once so warm that it had a liquid water ocean on its surface.

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‘Hot start’ theory says Pluto once had a surface ocean originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 24 Jun 2020 at 20:11:26 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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