NewScientist.com - July 18, 2007
Geysers of liquid water and ammonia are erupting on Pluto's large moon Charon, new observations suggest. The work bolsters the idea that Charon may harbour a liquid ocean beneath its surface – and just possibly, life.
Previously, astronomers had established that Charon's surface is made of mostly water ice. But those observations were not sharp enough to tell whether the ice was spread evenly over the1200-kilometre-wide moon or whether it was concentrated in patches on its surface.
Now, researchers led by Jason Cook of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, US, have found that the ice is indeed distributed differently on different parts of the moon. They made the observations with an adaptive optics system, which corrects for the blurring effect of the atmosphere, on the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii, US.
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