{"id":19235,"date":"2016-09-23T21:10:57","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T13:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/how-deep-does-plutos-ocean-go-would-you-believe-nine-times-deeper-than-earths\/"},"modified":"2016-09-23T21:10:57","modified_gmt":"2016-09-23T13:10:57","slug":"how-deep-does-plutos-ocean-go-would-you-believe-nine-times-deeper-than-earths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/how-deep-does-plutos-ocean-go-would-you-believe-nine-times-deeper-than-earths\/","title":{"rendered":"How deep does Pluto\u2019s ocean go? Would you believe nine times deeper than Earth\u2019s?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_277353\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-277353\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-277353 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/160923-pluto-sputnik-planum-630x409.jpg\" alt=\"Sputnik Planum\" width=\"630\" height=\"409\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/160923-pluto-sputnik-planum-630x409.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/160923-pluto-sputnik-planum-768x499.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/160923-pluto-sputnik-planum.jpg 1180w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-277353\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The left side of Pluto\u2019s bright \u201cheart\u201d is known informally as Sputnik Planum. (Credit: NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Scientists have been saying for months that Pluto could have a salty, sloshing ocean beneath its icy surface, but now they\u2019ve worked out just how deep it could go. The answer? As deep as 60 miles, or nine times the depth of Earth\u2019s deepest seas.<\/p>\n<p>The estimate, based on computer modeling of the impact dynamics behind a heart-shaped region of Pluto, was published this month in Geophysical Research Letters.<\/p>\n<p>The bright-colored \u201cheart,\u201d first seen last year by NASA\u2019s New Horizons probe, is arguably Pluto\u2019s best-known surface feature. But it\u2019s actually two features. Scientists say the left lobe of the heart, known informally as Sputnik Planum, was created in the aftermath of an ancient impact. The object that made that impact is thought to have been about 120 miles (200 kilometers) wide.<\/p>\n<p>In June, researchers reported that the geological features mapped on Pluto\u2019s&nbsp;surface would be consistent with the presence of a liquid water ocean far below, perhaps heated by the decay of radioactive materials in Pluto\u2019s rocky core. But they didn\u2019t estimate&nbsp;the size of the ocean.<\/p>\n<p>This month\u2019s findings address that question.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Here's How Pluto's Heart Formed\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6xbxZ1F1-mc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A team led by Brown University geologist Brandon Johnson developed a computer model that charted how Pluto\u2019s mass distribution should affect its orientation relative to Charon, the dwarf planet\u2019s largest moon.<\/p>\n<p>Pluto and Charon show the same face to each other as they spin in their orbits, a relationship known as tidal locking. And it so happens that Sputnik Planum is always front and center, as seen from Charon. That suggests that Sputnik Planum is a positive mass anomaly \u2013 that is, it has a higher-than-average concentration of mass.<\/p>\n<p>Typically, an impact region like Sputnik Planum would be a crater with a lower-than-average concentration of mass \u2013 in other words, a negative mass anomaly. In order for the region to be on the positive side, something must be pushing up from beneath the ice.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-188079 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png\" alt=\"pluto\" width=\"250\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png 250w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-200x151.png 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-132x100.png 132w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\"><br \/>\n<strong>Science journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong>&nbsp;is the author of &#8220;The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis scenario requires a liquid ocean,\u201d Johnson said in a news release. \u201cWe wanted to run computer models of the impact to see if this is something that would actually happen. What we found is that the production of a positive mass anomaly is actually quite sensitive to how thick the ocean layer is. It\u2019s also sensitive to how salty the ocean is, because the salt content affects the density of the water.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The researchers ran&nbsp;a wide variety of&nbsp;computer simulations to determine which combination of factors would produce an impact region of Sputnik Planum\u2019s size. The best match was a scenario in which Pluto has an subsurface ocean layer that\u2019s more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) thick, with a salinity of around 30 percent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat this tells us is that if Sputnik Planum is indeed a positive mass anomaly \u2014and it appears as though it is \u2014 this ocean layer of at least 100 kilometers has to be there,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n<p>As additional readings from last year\u2019s New Horizons flyby become available,&nbsp;researchers are likely to get a clearer idea of what lies beneath on Pluto. They may find out that a different scenario provides a better match for the data. But if the current scenario holds true, Pluto\u2019s hidden ocean would go nine&nbsp;times deeper than the Pacific Ocean\u2019s&nbsp;Marianas Trench, and be saltier than the saltiest water in Utah\u2019s Great Salt Lake.<\/p>\n<p>Could such an environment sustain life? Maybe someday we\u2019ll find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The left side of Pluto\u2019s bright \u201cheart\u201d is known informally as Sputnik Planum. (Credit: NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI) Scientists have been saying for months that Pluto could have a salty, sloshing ocean beneath its icy surface, but now they\u2019ve worked out just how deep it could go. The answer? As deep as 60 miles, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4809,2174,4810,2848],"class_list":["post-19235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nasa-new-horizons","tag-new-horizons","tag-new-horizons-probe","tag-pluto"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}