HONG KONG: Professor Brian Cox has said there could be alien life beneath the surface of Pluto after more pictures taken during historic flyby of the former planet were beamed back to Earth.
Mr Cox is the latest scientist to speak of his hopes that the dwarf planet is still geologically active and has sea beneath its icy and rocky crust.
His comments come after Express.co.uk discovered a geological feature in close-up images of Pluto sent back by Nasa’s new Horizons unmanned space probe, which the US space agency said could show it was still experiencing tectonic movements.
The probe sent back images which also showed huge mountains made of ice.
Mr Cox said a sea beneath the surface could be warm enough to spark the processes needed to form the simplest forms of life – the type of microrganisma that can thrive in the frozen envronment of the Arctic.
He said: “The probe showed you that there may well be a subsurface ocean on Pluto.
“This means if our understanding of life on Earth is even slightly correct – that you could have living things there.”
New Horizons flew past Pluto to within 7,800 miles of the surface.
The most close up pictures are still yet to be seen as due to the massive distances involved only about five percent of the images have made it back so far.
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