Scientists discover new evidence of Pluto's circumference
NASA's spacecraft has seen a glacier on Pluto, experts say, and could have been preserved for hundreds of millions of years under a layer of gaseous material that prevents it from freezing.
The researchers believe that a dielectric layer of gaseous matter may keep the ocean warm – a possibility supported by new models of Pluto's evolution. If these gaseous insulating layers are present in other planets in space, this may mean that there is more Oceans that can support life in the universe.
These results contradict many calculations that claim such an environment must have been frozen hundreds of millions of years ago because of cold temperatures in Pluto.
To reconcile these findings, an international team of researchers led by Japan's Hokkaido University suggested that the ocean might be covered with a insulating layer of gas hydrates that prevent the sea from freezing.
Gas hydrates are solid ice-like materials, enclosing small pockets of gas in molecular water cages, providing low thermal conductivity that can provide insulating properties.
To investigate whether this gas layer can keep the ocean isolated, the researchers have simulated the thermal and structural evolution of Pluto since the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago, and examined the cases in which there is a gas layer, and the other, which did not have any gas layers.
The simulations revealed that the ocean under Pluto's surface would have been completely frozen for hundreds of millions of years if there was no insulating layer of gas hydrates, and with this layer the ocean would not freeze at all.
The most likely gas to be kept within the insulating gas hydrate layer would be methane, the researchers said. This would be in line with the usual formation of a dwarf planet, rich in nitrogen but poor in methane.
"This may mean that there are more oceans in the universe than previously thought, making the existence of extraterrestrial life more logical," said author of the research paper and planetary scientist Shunichi Kamata of Hokkaido University.
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