Is there an ocean hidden on Pluto?

Pluto at the edge of the solar system is full of surprises, from erupting icebergs, faint smogs and nitro valleys.

The most notable recent finding of New Horizons satellite in the journey to discover Pluto is that the planet is still geologically active. Evidence of tectonic surface ice surprises in a place far away from the sun so that the scientific community is having a headache.

Picture 1 of Is there an ocean hidden on Pluto?
Frosty on Pluto.

Geophysical Research Letters poses a simple but rather attractive hypothesis, that is Pluto only has ice on the surface, and the bottom is the ocean.

"We see geological activities on Pluto not from any other factor such as strange material or unusual physical changes, but completely by moving ice , " says Noah Hammond. said.

Picture 2 of Is there an ocean hidden on Pluto?
Pluto at dusk.

The liquid theory of Pluto is not new. What is certain now is the Pluto's surface covered with ice, nitro, metane and CO 2 . Moreover, the theory of liquid-based ice is only hard on the surface and still in deep liquid form is also widely accepted.

The new study also shows that the topographic layers appear when the type II permafrost is not yet present, meaning that Pluto is not a solid mass and is likely to have an ocean from the past. still exists today.

Picture 3 of Is there an ocean hidden on Pluto?
The ice is still quite "young".

If Hammond's theory is validated, it is very likely that all of the common planets in the Kuiper belt near the Neptune star have oceans. Whether these oceans are friendly to life or not, it encourages people to continue to explore the universe.