Dead Sea replica appears on '9th planet'

Signs of an alien sea 8% more salty than Earth's sea have just been identified by American scientists .

The research team led by Dr. Alex Nguyen from Washington University in St. Louis and Dr. Patrick McGovern from the Lunar and Planetary Institute (USA) have found signs of a sea similar to a copy of the Dead Sea in the world that was once the "9th planet" of the solar system.

That interesting world is Pluto , which was "downgraded" from planet to dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2006, while NASA scientists affirmed that it deserved considered a planet.

In the new study, American scientists used data from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.

Deep below Sputnik Planitia of the "9th planet" may hide an extremely salty ocean - (Photo: NASA).

Use mathematical models to analyze New Horizons' high-resolution images of Pluto to gain insight into an ocean suspected to be buried beneath the planet's thick nitrogen and methane crust short.

Pluto's surface temperature is about -220 degrees Celsius, so cold that even gases like nitrogen and methane freeze solid, making it difficult for water to exist.

'It should have lost almost all of its heat immediately after it was formed, so basic calculations would show that it had frozen to the core' - Sci-News quoted Dr. Nguyen.

But in recent years, scientists have collected strange evidence that suggests the possibility of this celestial body having an underground ocean . For example, it has cold volcanoes that spew ice and steam.

Dr. Nguyen and Dr. McGovern's model targeted Sputnik Planitia , the western lobe of Pluto's famous heart-shaped icy field.

There was a meteorite collision here billions of years ago. Analyzing cracks and bulges in the ice, they calculated that the ocean in this region exists beneath a layer of water ice 40 to 80 kilometers thick.

Because it is so deep, this ocean is accidentally insulated, and remains unfrozen.

Additionally, another factor that contributes to this lack of freezing is salt. 

Pluto's ocean is very salty, with a salt concentration 8% higher than Earth's ocean.

This ratio is almost equal to the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah, which is likened to the American Dead Sea.

Of course, Pluto's ocean is still not as salty as the Dead Sea, but it is still an interesting close replica, in a world where many people previously believed that oceans did not exist.

This density would explain the abundance of cracks seen on the surface. If the ocean were significantly thinner, the ice shell would collapse, creating more cracks than are actually observed. If the ocean were much denser, there would be fewer cracks.

The results, just published in the journal Icarus, support NASA's expectations of a world much more "advanced" than the dwarf planet and with much more to discover.

Some scientists even expect a "loophole" for extreme life on this cold world.

To get the most accurate answer, we will probably have to wait for the next space missions targeting remote regions of the Solar System.