Subsurface Ocean In Pluto: Reason Heart Region Locks With Charon

Tombaugh Regio -- also known as the distinctive heart-shaped region on Pluto -- has always puzzled astronomers. However, data collected by NASA's New Horizons probe in its flyby last year may have finally solved the riddle: a large, slushy ocean most likely exists just beneath the surface.

New Horizons co-investigator Richard Binzel shared, "People had considered whether you could get a subsurface layer of water somewhere on Pluto. What's surprising is that we would have any information from a flyby that would give a compelling argument as to why there might be a subsurface ocean there. Pluto just continues to surprise us."

Pluto's ocean is likely to be slushy with ice, so while it is not considered prime candidate as a living planet, it is not entirely impossible, as liquid water is considered as an essential ingredient to life. Despite being 40 times further to the Sun than our Earth is, the Australian Broadcasting Company noted that it has enough radioactive heat left over from when it first formed 4.6 billion years ago, ensuring that it can keep water liquid.

Francis Nimmo of the University of California noted that Pluto has enough rock and a lot of heat being generated, so an ice shell that is a few hundred kilometers thick is actually a good insulator for the planet, adding that "a deep subsurface ocean is not too surprising, especially if the ocean contains ammonia, which acts like an antifreeze."

The heat that is able to escape Pluto's interior also suggests that an impactor strike may have created a spot on the planet, which may have induced Tombaugh Regio to become locked with Pluto's largest moon, Charon.

News Atlas noted that ice deposits in Pluto's polar regions are likely to diminish during summer, but the buildup of ice in the Tombaugh Regio may have endured for millions of years -- and the mass, combined with the gravitational weight of the ocean, may have been the reason for such lock with Charon as well.