Waspie_Dwarf Posted February 18, 2016 #1 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Pluto’s ‘Hulk-like’ Moon Charon: A Possible Ancient Ocean? Pluto’s largest moon may have gotten too big for its own skin.Images from NASA’s New Horizons mission suggest that Pluto’s moon Charon once had a subsurface ocean that has long since frozen and expanded, pushing outward and causing the moon’s surface to stretch and fracture on a massive scale. The side of Pluto’s largest moon viewed by NASA’s passing New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015 is characterized by a system of “pull apart” tectonic faults, which are expressed as ridges, scarps and valleys—the latter sometimes reaching more than 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) deep. Charon’s tectonic landscape shows that, somehow, the moon expanded in its past, and – like Bruce Banner tearing his shirt as he becomes the Incredible Hulk – Charon’s surface fractured as it stretched. Read more... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nnicolette Posted February 19, 2016 #2 Share Posted February 19, 2016 I wonder if life in planet interiors is the norm and we are just lucky enough to be in a rare place where the surface is hospitable. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeastieRunner Posted February 19, 2016 #3 Share Posted February 19, 2016 I wonder if life in planet interiors is the norm and we are just lucky enough to be in a rare place where the surface is hospitable. That would be crazy! Imagine what that would do to the universe as we know it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted February 19, 2016 Author #4 Share Posted February 19, 2016 That would be crazy! Imagine what that would do to the universe as we know it. What's crazy about it? Why would it change the universe as we know it? We now know or suspect that Jupiter's moons Europa and Ganymede and possibly Callisto as well as Saturn’s moon Enceladus have subsurface liquid water oceans. The only world we know of to have a liquid water at the surface is Earth. So in our solar system the world's which can support subsurface life out number the world's which can support it on the surface 3 or 4 to 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundew Posted February 19, 2016 #5 Share Posted February 19, 2016 An underground waterway, you would almost expect that from a moon named Charon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bavarian Raven Posted February 20, 2016 #6 Share Posted February 20, 2016 What's crazy about it? Why would it change the universe as we know it? We now know or suspect that Jupiter's moons Europa and Ganymede and possibly Callisto as well as Saturn’s moon Enceladus have subsurface liquid water oceans. The only world we know of to have a liquid water at the surface is Earth. So in our solar system the world's which can support subsurface life out number the world's which can support it on the surface 3 or 4 to 1. If (a big if!) though three or four "planets" in our solar system independently evolved life, that would be pretty amazing. And that'd mean the universe would then likely be filled to the brim with "life". I would consider that amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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