Scientists deeply look what is inside the wandering heart of the planet Pluto and found out more evidence that help them to conclude that the planet could be hiding an ocean of water beneath its icy surface.

As published on Wednesday in the two papers of journal Nature, researchers say Sputnik Planatia is on the move that it slowly drifting toward the equator of planet Pluto.

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Sputnik Planatia, which is the left lobe of Pluto's famous "heart," is a 600-mile-wide (1,000 kilometers) and formerly known as Sputnik Planum.

Sputnik Planatia is align nicely with the Pluto-Charon tidal axis, the line along which the gravitational pull from the Pluto's largest moon, Charon, is the strongest.

Journal Nature reported that the location of Sputnik Planitia is the natural consequence of the sequestration of volatile ices within the basin and the resulting reorientation (true polar wander) of Pluto.

These volatile ices loading in the left lobe of pluto's heart can substantially alter Pluto's inertia tensor, resulting in a reorientation of the planet Pluto of around 60 degrees with respect to the rotational and tidal axes.

Result of the Combination of This Reorientation

A global network of extensional faults that closely replicate the observed fault networks on Pluto was resulted from the combination of the loading and global expansion due to the freezing of a possible subsurface ocean generates stresses within the Pluto's lithosphere.

The volatile transport cycles on Pluto may result on probable northwest formation of Sputnik Planitia. Pluto's heart was loaded with volatiles over million-year timescales.

Pluto's past, present, and future orientation is controlled by feedbacks between volatile sublimation and condensation, changing insolation conditions and Pluto's interior structure.

What Scientists Suggested on the Two Papers?

James Keane, a graduate student at the University of Arizona who is the first author of one of the papers, explained that the phenomenon responsible for making Pluto's heart move has been observed on other terrestrial bodies like the moon, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and even our own planet Earth. Scientists call it "true polar wander."

Francis Nimmo, planetary scientist at UC Santa Cruz who is the author of the other paper, comes to a slightly different conclusion, saying that the positive mass anomaly was probably caused by a subsurface ocean that moved closer to the surface in the area of the impact crater.

It is hard to imagine Pluto reorienting in this way if it did not have an ocean, Nimmo said.

Tagsplanet, Pluto, Heart, Scientists, Sputnik Planatia