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Scientists investigate whether there might be warm liquid water on Pluto
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Despite Pluto's appearance as a dark and frozen world, scientists investigate whether there might be warm liquid water beneath the surface
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Tonight on Apple TV+ the 41‑minute documentary Secret History of Pluto turns its lens on the dwarf planet’s hidden interior. The film opens with stark images of Pluto’s icy surface, then shifts to scientists who argue that heat from radioactive decay could keep a subsurface ocean liquid. Interviews with planetary geologists explain how the New Horizons fly‑by revealed clues – young‑looking terrain, possible cryovolcanoes, and a surprisingly smooth heart‑shaped basin. The programme walks viewers through the physics of tidal flexing and how a thin atmosphere might trap enough warmth. Archival footage of the 2015 mission is intercut with computer‑generated reconstructions of what an ocean beneath the ice might look like. It also asks what a hidden sea means for the search for life beyond Earth. Clear narration and striking visuals make a complex topic feel immediate.
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