On December 6, NASA's New Horizons probe woke-up from hibernation to prepare for its first encounter with Pluto.

Pluto is part of the Kuiper Belt and isn't really alone in the farthest reaches of the solar system. The Kuiper Belt consists of billions of icy bodies and starts beyond the orbit of Neptune.

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Unlike the Moon or Mars, Pluto doesn't have any craters as its surface is made-up of thick layers of nitrogen ice that might be soft and not have the ability to form craters.

Pluto might also possess an underground ocean, believes Alan Stern, the mission's principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute.

Stern says the interior of Pluto is warmer than the surface where ice can melt into water. New Horizons might be able to detect the ocean indirectly by taking accurate measurements of Pluto's planetary shape and searching for cracks on its flexible crust.

Stern also reveals that Pluto may have from 15 to 50 satellites but ground observations have only detected five. New Horizons could confirm this number.

Also, Stern suggests Pluto might possess rings since its moons, Nix and Hydra, have relatively weak gravitational forces that attract smaller objects flung from impacts. Dust and debris hurled into space from impacts on a planet can eventually form rings.

Stern reveals Pluto might be geologically activite because of its underground ocean. Oceans like that can also produce geysers similar to Saturn's moon, Enceladus, or even volcanoes on Jupiter's moon, Io.

Stern, however, still believes Pluto is still a planet but a dwarf planet since he coined the term. He still has his reservations about why the International Astronomical Union redefined the meaning of the term planet to now exclude dwarf planets.

Stern has been working with New Horizons for 15 years and has talked about what humanity will discover about the mysterious Pluto. 

TagsWhat You Need to Need to Know About Pluto Before New Horizons Probe Encounter, Pluto, new horizons probe, NASA, kuiper belt