Pluto has a vast ocean beneath its frozen crust that has been there for 4.5 billion years and could be harbouring alien life, study shows. Computer simulations were developed that time-lapsed Pluto's geologic history through 4.6 billion years, the age of our solar system. For there could be life beneath Pluto, and there could be many more ocean worlds in the Milky Way than previously thought, according to new research that theorizes that a possibly life … Pluto is your ruling planet, Scorpio, so you're bound to feel this retrograde in a big way — but expect positive shifts this time around, not difficult ones. This is the highest-resolution color departure shot of Pluto's receding crescent from NASA's New... [+] Horizons spacecraft, taken when the spacecraft was 120,000 miles (200,000 kilometers) away from Pluto. "While changes may well occur when it comes to your hopes and wishes, friends, and group activities, it won't be anything dramatic or over the top." With Pluto transits, changes happen on a deep, cataclysmic level. It's time to move on from the problematic “Is Pluto a planet?” debate. It receives just 1/1600 of the sunlight that Earth gets and its surface at the equator can get as cold as −240 °C/−400 °F. You're redefining the way you experience pleasure and leisure right now, Virgo — so this Plutonian exploration (and the subsequent energy shifts) will be more fun than painful, thanks to Pluto forming a lucky trine aspect to your Sun. "Pluto will retrograde in your house of children, friends and love, so you could see changes in this area," Hale says. Scientists from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokushima University, Osaka University, and the University of California in Santa Cruz were also involved. In an effort to calculate how long it would take Pluto's interior to evolve and for a subsurface ocean to freeze, simulations were run for there being, and not being, an insulating layer of gas hydrates between the ocean and Pluto's icy shell. Its left half is a big basin dubbed Sputnik... [+] Planitia. I'm the editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com and the author of "A Stargazing Program for Beginners: A Pocket Field Guide" (Springer, 2015), as well as many eclipse-chasing guides. Enjoy the eclectic journey. And what about other dwarf planets, comets, and asteroids in the solar system's remote Kuiper belt region, like Pluto? “This could mean there are more oceans in the Universe than previously thought, making the existence of extraterrestrial life more plausible,” says Shunichi Kamata, Associate Professor at Hokkaido University, the lead researcher on a paper entitled “Pluto's ocean is capped and insulated by gas hydrates”, which has just been published in Nature Geoscience. That said, expect for transformative experiences to come to you during everyday encounters over the coming months — even casual chats with friends, coworkers, roommates, and peers could provide you with valuable insight in an easy-to-digest package. "Should a major change occur [in your life,] it will not be difficult or distracting, as Pluto is forming an easy aspect with your Sun that typically pertains to conversation,"" Hale says. As such, there is simply no way life could survive on the surface of Pluto. These shifts are powerful, so they can affect the structure of the world and society at large, but also affect us on a personal level. Between the extreme cold, low atmospheric pressure, and constant changes in … © 2020 Forbes Media LLC. Pluto's dramatically uneven ice shell thins at Sputnik Planitia, which scientists think contains a subsurface ocean. It's a white-colored basin near Pluto's equator only discovered in 2015 when NASA's New Horizons spacecraft zipped by, taking the first-ever close-up images of the dwarf planet. “To maintain an ocean, Pluto needs to retain heat inside,” reads the paper. For now, astronomers presume life is most likely on planets that, like Earth (the only place where life is proven to exist), orbit in a “not too cold, not too hot” orbit cutely named the “Goldilocks zone.” This new research could widen the net. I'm an experienced science, technology and travel journalist and stargazer writing about exploring the night sky, solar and lunar eclipses, moon-gazing, astro-travel. Pluto retrograde 2020 begins on April 25 and won't go direct again until Oct. 5, so we've all got nearly six months of self-reflection on our 2020 docket. "It should work out well in the long run — even if you change your mind about a romance or friendship. “On the other hand, to maintain large variations in its thickness, Pluto's ice shell needs to be cold.” The scientists think that there could be an insulating layer of gas that could be keeping an ocean in liquid form. This exploration could be foundation-shaking for many of us, but there are a few zodiac signs who will find the energy of this retrograde flows quite easily. If distant, icy Pluto has a liquid water ocean beneath its surface, protected by a layer of gas hydrates, might that ocean contain life? Embrace the shifts in your friendship group or community, as you'll find everything is falling into place rather than out of alignment. "Change comes slowly with a Pluto transit, but for Taurus, this change comes in an easy manner," astrologer Leslie Hale of Keen.com tells Bustle. "You could experience a change in your thinking, educational process, or travel plans — but not in a bad way."