Pluto has giant underground ocean, say scientists studying New Horizon data

www.abc.net.au...

This is extremely interesting news huh?

Scientists have found evidence that tiny, distant Pluto harbours a hidden ocean beneath the frozen surface of its heart-shaped central plain containing as much water as all of Earth's seas.

The finding, reported in two research papers published in the journal Nature, adds Pluto to a growing list of worlds in the solar system beyond Earth believed to have underground oceans, some of which potentially could be habitats for life.

Pluto's ocean, which is likely slushy with ice, lies 150 to 200 kilometres beneath the dwarf planet's icy surface and is about 100 kilometres deep, said planetary scientist Francis Nimmo of the University of California.

With its ocean covered by so much ice, Pluto is not a prime candidate for life, added Massachusetts Institute of Technology planetary scientist Richard Binzel, another of the researchers.

But he added that "one is careful to never say the word impossible".

Liquid water is considered one of the essential ingredients for life.

The discovery was made through an analysis of images and data collected by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which flew past Pluto and its entourage of moons in July 2015.

Opps, sorry folks, seems I need new glasses..........this has been posted previously. MODS please delete

Where previously posted?

I have a comment. I thought New Horizons sensor suite was passive, only observing surface and atmospheric features. Don't they need radar to penetrate the ground to determine if theres an 'ocean of water' beneath the surface?

a reply to: intrptr

Hmmm, you're right, I may have been seeing things......or my own post....ahem? Anyway.....

en.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: intrptr

Where previously posted?

I have a comment. I thought New Horizons sensor suite was passive, only observing surface and atmospheric features. Don't they need radar to penetrate the ground to determine if theres an 'ocean of water' beneath the surface?

Good question,here's mine.

How is it that the water is slushy? Shouldn't it be frozen solid?

I was going to suggest tidal interaction with Charon, but since those two are now "tidally locked", I wouldn't think that present day tidal forces are all that significant....

a reply to: CaptainBeno

I guess it brings a new meaning to if we lived there.... 'Far out Man '!!

I know Corey Goode and David Wilcock get a lot of flak on this site and elsewhere, but I find it very interesting that they called this particular development over a year ago. From Cosmic Disclosure, season 4, episode 1:

David: Okay, so what Bruce had originally said, this was something very interesting because he told me it was an authorized disclosure from the United States government. That they didn't want to openly tell us this in like a major way, but that they were going to reach certain people who were seeding things into the UFO community and give them this information so that it became part of the public consciousness, and this was the first step.

Corey: This is how partial disclosure is going to work. They're going to tell people there's an atmosphere, a thin atmosphere on Pluto, that it has blue skies.

David: I just saw that last night.

Corey: Ha, ha.

David: And water.

Corey: There is liquid water on different planets. And then they're going to finally get to a point to where they get to do their narrative of disclosure, this slow, partial disclosure narrative. And then they're going to try that narrative to talk about this ancient ET race that used to be here that disappeared, that's very ancient. And that'll be probably the first bit of information people will get.

Link

originally posted by: Tman2135
I know Corey Goode and David Wilcock get a lot of flak on this site and elsewhere, but I find it very interesting that they called this particular development over a year ago.

Except they didn't. They said Pluto has an atmosphere and "blue skies", which is absurd.

a reply to: AdmireTheDistance

I would direct you to this article.

Link

Looks blue to me...

a reply to: Tman2135

Well one out of four ain't bad. We'll stay tuned. Thanks fro brining the UFO angle.

Personally, I always wonder why the interplanetary people are so interested in every square inch of every object in our solar system. I have to wonder about this from a certain alien perspective. If they were to visit or have visited or continue to visit earth on an ongoing basis, then it would be a requirement to have a base or bases somewhere in the solar system to operate to and from.

Many sighting reports include small craft and huge ones, like (interstellar) motherships and or probes. All exploration is done in stages, utilizing base camps, supply lines, etc. If they are coming and going from our star they would need a base.

Hmmm...

originally posted by: Alien Abduct

originally posted by: intrptr

Where previously posted?

I have a comment. I thought New Horizons sensor suite was passive, only observing surface and atmospheric features. Don't they need radar to penetrate the ground to determine if theres an 'ocean of water' beneath the surface?

Good question,here's mine.

How is it that the water is slushy? Shouldn't it be frozen solid?

My only guess is residual heat from some mega impactor, that huge ice field appears melted and refrozen at some point, right? So maybe geysers of aerosolized liquid gasses, maybe pockets of slush warmed form hot spots deep below the surface. Its too small to have a molten core, but residual heat from impactors could last for long time, geologically.

Just speculation. The gasses measured in the thin atmosphere will have to be sorted out to determine this.

a reply to: CaptainBeno

I was glad you brought it. I missed the other thread, kind of busy now anyway, elsewhere. Real world calls...

click

a reply to: intrptr

Well, if you were an ancient spacefaring human or extraterrestrial civilization that wanted to monitor our progress without being directly visible the outer solar system and/or oort cloud would be ideal.

I personally think that we are getting the slow burn. The most recent figure I've seen is 57% of the American public believe in the possibility of extraterrestrial life. So by sloooooowly divulging that the building blocks of life (namely liquid water) are far more common than previously believed they are preparing us for the idea of ET life.

In the meantime, I'll keep an eye out for one of those massive data dumps that precludes a full disclosure event.