. 24/7 Space News .
EXO WORLDS
Could There Be Life in Pluto's Ocean?
by Staff Writers
St. Louis, MO (SPX) Dec 02, 2016


View of Pluto with color-coded topography as measured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. Purple and blue are low and yellow and red are high, and the informally named Sputnik Planitia stands out at top as a broad, 1300 km- (800 mile-) wide, 2.5 km- (1.5 mile-) deep elliptical basin, most likely the site of an ancient impact on Pluto. New Horizons data imply that deep beneath this nitrogen-ice filled basin is an ocean of dense, salty, ammonia-rich water. (Photo: P.M. Schenk LPI/JHUAPL/SwRI/NASA)

Pluto is thought to possess a subsurface ocean, which is not so much a sign of water as it is a tremendous clue that other dwarf planets in deep space also may contain similarly exotic oceans, naturally leading to the question of life, said one co-investigator with NASA's New Horizon mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.

William McKinnon, professor of Earth and planetary sciences in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and a co-author on two of four new Pluto studies published Dec. 1 in Nature, argues that beneath the heart-shaped region on Pluto known as Sputnik Planitia there lies an ocean laden with ammonia.

The presence of the pungent, colorless liquid helps to explain not only Pluto's orientation in space but also the persistence of the massive, ice-capped ocean that other researchers call "slushy" - but McKinnon prefers to depict as syrupy.

Using computer models along with topographical and compositional data culled from the New Horizon spacecraft's July 2015 flyby of Pluto, McKinnon led a study on Sputnik Planitia's churning nitrogen ice surface that appeared this past June in Nature. He is also an author on the recently released study regarding the orientation and gravity of Pluto caused by this subsurface ocean some 600 miles wide and more than 50 miles thick.

"In fact, New Horizons has detected ammonia as a compound on Pluto's big moon, Charon, and on one of Pluto's small moons. So it's almost certainly inside Pluto," McKinnon said. "What I think is down there in the ocean is rather noxious, very cold, salty and very ammonia-rich - almost a syrup.

"It's no place for germs, much less fish or squid, or any life as we know it," he added. "But as with the methane seas on Titan - Saturn's main moon - it raises the question of whether some truly novel life forms could exist in these exotic, cold liquids."

As humankind explores deeper into the Kuiper Belt and farther from Earth, this means to McKinnon the possible discovery of more such subsurface seas and more potential for exotic life.

"The idea that bodies of Pluto's scale, of which there are more than one out there in the Kuiper Belt, they could all have these kinds of oceans. But they'd be very exotic compared to what we think of as an ocean," McKinnon said.

"Life can tolerate a lot of stuff: It can tolerate a lot of salt, extreme cold, extreme heat, etc. But I don't think it can tolerate the amount of ammonia Pluto needs to prevent its ocean from freezing - ammonia is a superb antifreeze. Not that ammonia is all bad. On Earth, microorganisms in the soil fix nitrogen to ammonia, which is important for making DNA and proteins and such.

"If you're going to talk about life in an ocean that's completely covered with an ice shell, it seems most likely that the best you could hope for is some extremely primitive kind of organism. It might even be pre-cellular, like we think the earliest life on Earth was."

The newly published research delves into the creation - likely by a 125-mile-wide Kuiper Belt object striking Pluto more than 4 billion years ago - of the basin that includes Sputnik Planitia.

The collapse of the huge crater lifts Pluto's subsurface ocean, and the dense water - combined with dense surface nitrogen ice that fills in the hole - forms a huge mass excess that causes Pluto to tip over, reorienting itself with respect to its big moon.

But the ocean uplift won't last if warm water ice at the base of the covering ice shell can flow and adjust in the manner of glaciers on Earth. Add enough ammonia to the water, and it can chill to incredibly cold temperatures (down to minus 145 Fahrenheit) and still be liquid, even if quite viscous, like chilled pancake syrup. At these temperatures, water ice is rigid, and the uplifted surface ocean becomes permanent.

"All of these ideas about an ocean inside Pluto are credible, but they are inferences, not direct detections," McKinnon said, sounding the call. "If we want to confirm that such an ocean exists, we will need gravity measurements or subsurface radar sounding, all of which could be accomplished by a future orbiter mission to Pluto. It's up to the next generation to pick up where New Horizons left off!"

"Reorientation of Sputnik Planitia Implies a Subsurface Ocean on Pluto," F. Nimmo et al., 2016 Dec. 1, Nature


Comment on this article using your Disqus, Facebook, Google or Twitter login.


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
Washington University In St. Louis
Lands Beyond Beyond - extra solar planets - news and science
Life Beyond Earth






Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

Previous Report
EXO WORLDS
Fijian ants began farming 3 million years ago
Munich, Germany (UPI) Nov 27, 2016
Ants have been farming for at least 3 million years. New research suggests Fijian ants were the planet's first plant farmers. As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Nature, the ant species Philidris nagasau has been nurturing Squamellaria plants and harvesting their fruit since the Pliocene Epoch. The historic nature of the ant species' green thumb was revealed by an ... read more


EXO WORLDS
Space Food Bars Will Keep Orion Weight Off and Crew Weight On

Russian Space Sector Overcomes Failures

Embry-Riddle Students Join Project PoSSUM to Test Prototype Spacesuits in Zero-G

Proton Rocket Transported to Russian Spaceport Ahead of Satellite Launch

EXO WORLDS
Ariane 5's impressive 75 in-a-row launch record

Vega ready for GOKTURK-1A to be encapsulated

Star One D1 arrives for heavy-lift Ariane 5 in Dec with 2 SSL-built satellites

SLS propulsion system goes into Marshall stand ahead of big test series

EXO WORLDS
First views of Mars show potential for ESA's new orbiter

ExoMars space programme needs an extra 400 million euros

Opportunity team onsidering a new route due to boulder field

Mars Ice Deposit Holds as Much Water as Lake Superior

EXO WORLDS
China launches 4th data relay satellite

Material and plant samples retrieved from space experiments

Chinese astronauts return to earth after longest mission

China completes longest manned space mission yet

EXO WORLDS
Thales and SENER to jointly supply optical payloads for space missions

Citizens' space debate: the main findings and the future

Two-year extensions confirmed for ESA's science missions

Vita: next Space Station mission name and logo

EXO WORLDS
Novel silicon etching technique crafts 3-D gradient refractive index micro-optics

Understanding the way liquid spreads through paper

Laser-based Navigation Sensor Could Be Standard for Planetary Landing Missions

Inside tiny tubes, water turns solid when it should be boiling

EXO WORLDS
Timing the shadow of a potentially habitable extrasolar planet

Fijian ants began farming 3 million years ago

Researchers propose low-mass supernova triggered formation of solar system

Scientists from the IAC discover a nearby 'superearth'

EXO WORLDS
New analysis adds to support for a subsurface ocean on Pluto

Pluto follows its cold, cold heart

New Analysis Supports Subsurface Ocean on Pluto

Mystery solved behind birth of Saturn's rings









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.