Pluto's Subsurface Ocean is 8% Denser than Seawater on Earth, Study Suggests

[Judi Lynn]

May 21, 2024 by News Staff

Planetary researchers from Washington University in St. Louis and the Lunar and Planetary Institute have used mathematical models and unprecedented high-resolution images from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft to take a closer look at the subsurface ocean that likely lies beneath Pluto’s thick shell of nitrogen, methane and water ice.



This high-resolution image of Pluto was taken by New Horizons on July 14. Pluto’s surface sports a remarkable range of subtle colors, enhanced in this view to a rainbow of pale blues, yellows, oranges, and deep reds. Many landforms have their own distinct colors, telling a complex geological and climatological story that scientists have only just begun to decode. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.


For many decades, planetary scientists assumed that Pluto could not support an ocean.

The surface temperature is about minus 220 degrees Celsius (minus 364 degrees Fahrenheit), a temperature so cold even gases like nitrogen and methane freeze solid. Water shouldn’t have a chance.

“Pluto is a small body,” said Alex Nguyen, a Ph.D. student at Washington University in St. Louis.

“It should have lost almost all of its heat shortly after it was formed, so basic calculations would suggest that it’s frozen solid to its core.”

But in recent years, scientists have gathered evidence suggesting Pluto likely contains an ocean of liquid water beneath the ice.

More:
https://www.sci.news/space/plutos-subsurface-ocean-12954.html

[Hermit-The-Prog]

1. That ocean's beaches might be too cold even for a pale blue Scottish person.