When early Earth was still a molten mass with a surface swimming in liquid magma, Pluto — along with its icy underground ocean — were just forming. And for the billions of years since, liquid plutonian water has remained in the distant solar system, providing a potential abode for life. At least, that’s the conclusion of a new study published June 22 in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The study rewrites scientists’ theories about the early history of Pluto and suggests that other liquid oceans — once thought to be unique to Earth — are common on dwarf planets across the outer solar system.
“Oceans are ubiquitous. Most of them are in the outer solar system. And they could be abodes for life,” says S. Alan Stern, an astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute and head of NASA’s New Horizons mission. “This is a fundamental sea change in the way we view the solar system.”
