Cracks Might Provide Clues About Ancient Ocean on Pluto's Moon

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which will visit Pluto in July 2015, could help scientists look for evidence of ocean on Pluto's moon - Charon.

If the surface of Charon is cracked, then its analysis will reveal whether or not the moon had a sub-surface ocean in the past.

Pluto is around 29 times farther than Earth and has temperature close to 380 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (around minus 229 degrees Celsius).

So why are scientists hoping to find evidence of an ocean in this icy wasteland?

According to NASA, moons of planets such as Jupiter and Saturn are in a gravitational tug-of-war. This gravitational pull by parent planets keeps Europa, Enceladus and even Charon in a slight elliptical orbit. The eccentric tides raise daily tides on the surface of the moons. Scientists say that this tidal flexing might keep the interiors warm and allow underground water to exist in liquid form.

Planetary scientists believe that Charon might have had liquid oceans in the past and that cracks on the surface of the moon might reveal details about these oceans.

"Our model predicts different fracture patterns on the surface of Charon depending on the thickness of its surface ice, the structure of the moon's interior and how easily it deforms, and how its orbit evolved," said Alyssa Rhoden of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

"By comparing the actual New Horizons observations of Charon to the various predictions, we can see what fits best and discover if Charon could have had a subsurface ocean in its past, driven by high eccentricity," Rhoden said in a news release.

Would finding evidence of water mean that Charon could support life?

Not really. Liquid water is essential for life, but biological organisms need the right mixture of chemical and energy source, according to nbc news.

The study is published in the journal Icarus.