Pluto likely has an ocean buried beneath its frozen exterior, study reveals

The thing is that Mars had ancient water and was always more proximal to life's habitable zone than Pluto ever was.
We can't rule out extant, or past life, on Mars yet .. but if it ever had life, then any evolved larger species, or other species which evolved in abundance, certainly don't well on its surface nowadays .. and that's regardless of the evidence of past surface water.

What does the evidence of the presence of liquid water elsewhere, really tell us about the possibility of life elsewhere?

SelfSim said:

What does the evidence of the presence of liquid water elsewhere, really tell us about the possibility of life elsewhere?

Click to expand...

@Michie has provided us with intriguing data on planetary formation and internal planetary dynamics. Yet you choose to focus on an aspect that is not raised in the original paper and is only mentioned as a lined item in the FoxNews article. Is this a continuation of your philosophical and allegedly logical objection to estimates and discussion on the probability of life? It seems so. If polluting threads with ones own agenda isn't against forum rules, it ought to be.

@Michie It's nice to see one of your threads in an area of the forum where a non-Christian reprobate can interact with it. I hope this is the start of a trend.

Ophiolite said:

@Michie has provided us with intriguing data on planetary formation and internal planetary dynamics. Yet you choose to focus on an aspect that is not raised in the original paper and is only mentioned as a lined item in the FoxNews article. Is this a continuation of your philosophical and allegedly logical objection to estimates and discussion on the probability of life? It seems so. If polluting threads with ones own agenda isn't against forum rules, it ought to be.

Click to expand...

You are obviously blissfully unaware that the investigation of Kuiper belt objects is very much about providing answers to NASA's strategic level question of: How did water and other compounds essential for life arrive on Earth?

I recommend you study the strategy underpinning NASA's New Frontiers program, (under which the New Horizons mission was grandfathered). New Horizons is expected to make returns to the goals of that program. Evidence of Pluto's relatively warm formation and an early subsurface ocean, is a direct example of such a return.

SelfSim said:

You are obviously blissfully unaware that the investigation of Kuiper belt objects is very much about providing answers to NASA's strategic level question of: How did water and other compounds essential for life arrive on Earth?

I recommend you study the strategy underpinning NASA's New Frontiers program, (under which the New Horizons mission was grandfathered). New Horizons is expected to make returns to the goals of that program. Evidence of Pluto's relatively warm formation and an early subsurface ocean, is a direct example of such a return.

Click to expand...

All incidental and irrelvant. There were multiple reasons for the New Horizons program. The information discussed in the paper has its major relevance to planetary formation (specifically cold versus hot coalesence) and subsequent evolution (specifically cooling mechanism and tectonic consequences). There is little or no data here relevant to "How did water and other compounds essential for life arrive on Earth?"

It's OK. I understand you have an agenda. Just please avoid polluting interesting threads with it. Start your own.

Edit:
From this link a clear demonstration that your view of the New Horizon Mission Goals is mistaken.
The objectives of the New Horizons mission:

Group 1 Objectives – Required:

• Characterize the global geology and morphology of Pluto and its moons
• Map surface composition of Pluto and Charon
• Characterize the neutral atmosphere of Pluto and its escape rate

Group 2 Objectives – Important:

• Characterize the time variability of Pluto’s surface and atmosphere
• Image Pluto and Charon in stereo
• Map the terminators (day/night boundary) and compositions of selected areas of Pluto and Charon in high resolution
• Characterize Pluto’s ionosphere and solar wind interaction
• Search for atmospheric hydrocarbons and nitriles
• Search for an atmosphere around Charon
• Determine albedos and surface temperatures on Pluto and Charon

Group 3 Objectives – Desired:

• Characterize the energetic particle environment of Pluto and Charon
• Refine bulk parameters (radii, masses, densities) and orbits of Pluto and Charon
• Search for additional satellites, rings and magnetic fields

Ophiolite said:

All incidental and irrelvant

Click to expand...

'Incidental'? - maybe .. eg: if the speaker of such an accusation is being driven by ego and high handedness.
'Irrelevant'? - Definitely not.

SelfSim said:

'Incidental'? - maybe .. eg: if the speaker of such an accusation is being driven by ego and high handedness.
'Irrelevant'? - Definitely not.

Click to expand...

I see you choose to address personality rather than the facts I presented. Par for the course.

Ophiolite said:

I see you choose to address personality rather than the facts I presented.

Click to expand...

I was addressing a possible basis of the motivation behind your perplexing complaint of 'Incidental'.

I recommend you take the time to inform yourself of the potential validity of the impacts of these findings from a Strategy viewpoint, firstly by informing yourself of the overall Strategy to start with, and secondly by taking up the well-informed hint I gave you in post #4.

For your own personal benefit: See NASA's 2015 Astrobiology Strategy from here:

Icy Bodies:
Astrobiologists have significantly advanced our understanding of the potential habitability of subsurface liquid water oceans on icy worlds in the outer Solar System, including Jupiter’s moons Europa and Ganymede, Saturn’s moons Titan, Enceladus, and Dione, and Neptune’s moon Triton.

Click to expand...

Pluto is obviously an icy body. The subsequent finding of the possibility of a subsurface liquid ocean on Pluto then informs the decadal survey, which provides the evidence basis behind future target prioritisations and takes Astrobiogical considerations as a key priority:

The main purpose of habitability investigations in the context of astrobiology is to narrow and prioritize the search space for life detection efforts. Investigations and methodologies capable of resolving “more habitable” environments from “less habitable” environments will enable the identification of worlds or locations that are more likely to show signs of past or present life. Thus, a key challenge for the coming decades of exploration is to augment the liquid water metric that has served as a guide to habitability with additional metrics that will aid in target prioritization.

Click to expand...

'Target prioritization' involves evidence of the potential of liquid water (past or present). This then also results in the payload design of future missions. So, as mentioned in the OP link:

NASA has provided funding to the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) to investigate the costs of the project, its feasibility, as well as "develop the spacecraft and payload design requirements and make preliminary cost and risk assessments for new technologies," according to a statement.

Click to expand...

The hunt for liquid water bodies throughout the Solar System, has questions about life at its core. Payload instrumentation for a body demonstrating the possibility of even past liquid water, will include technologies for deeping understanding of its life relevant properties.

Your criticism is thus revealed as not being based on knowledge of NASA's over-reaching strategy for efficiently exploring the Solar System bodies and how that strategy prioritizes the search for evidence of present or past life .. I'll leave it up to you to contemplate the possibility of personality/opinion based influences of criticisms which actually do address that strategy.