Today, the dwarf planet Pluto orbits the sun from the edge of our solar system and its surface temperature is an inhospitable negative 378 to negative 396 degrees Fahrenheit. But a new study suggests that wasn't always the case. Researchers have long thought that Pluto began as an icy sphere when it formed in the Kuiper Belt, a home to cold, dark objects on the edge of our solar system. Some scientists also believe there is a liquid ocean beneath Pluto's ice shell that is estimated to be 249 miles thick. But they thought it formed later in Pluto's history as radioactive elements were heated near the dwarf planet's rocky core and decayed. This heat could have been enough to melt ice and form a subsurface ocean. When NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto and its moons in 2015, the mission provided detailed images and data that challenged scientific assumptions. "The most exciting part of this research to me is that we can use the geology we observe on Pluto today to peer back in time and learn about what Pluto was like shortly after its formation," said Carver Bierson, first study author and recent PhD graduate from the University of California, Santa Cruz. "Planetary science is similar to trying to read a story where most of the pages are missing and some have other stories written on top of them. This always makes it exciting when we can piece together what was happening in the first few pages of solar system history." Now, using geologic observations of Pluto's surface, new research suggests that Pluto actually started out in a hot formation scenario. Researchers modeled and compared hot versus cold formation scenarios and found that the surface features on Pluto best match hot. In that scenario, the liquid ocean would slowly freeze over time, although not completely, and cause the extensional faults seen by New Horizons in Pluto's icy crust. more on: https://cnnphilippines.com/world/2020/6/23/Pluto-ocean-hot-planet.html

As interest in cryptocurrency grows among institutional investors, global investment banks, like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, are reexamining their views about bitcoin. Goldman Sachs is hosting a call for its clients to learn about the implications of current policies for bitcoin, gold, and inflation. Goldman Sachs’ Bitcoin Call for Clients New York City-headquartered investment bank Goldman Sachs is hosting a call for clients on May 27 entitled “US Economic Outlook & Implications of Current Policies for Inflation, Gold and Bitcoin.” Goldman Sachs’ Investment Strategy Group, part of the firm’s Consumer and Investment Management Division, has issued a notice inviting clients to the call where they can learn about bitcoin. Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, Goldman Sachs’ head of Investment Strategy Group and chief investment officer for Wealth Management, will host the event. She is responsible for the firm’s overall strategic asset allocation and tactical investment strategy. An increasing number of billionaire investors are also increasing their investment portfolios’ exposure to bitcoin or recommending bitcoin as a hedging strategy. Among them are Virgin Galactic chairman Chamath Palihapitiya, Galaxy Digital CEO Michael Novogratz, and famous hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones. Several economists and analysts have predicted that more institutional investors will be investing in cryptocurrency post the covid-19 crisis, such as this Japanese analyst and SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce. Investment firms, like JPMorgan Chase, that were previously skeptical about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are coming around and beginning to embrace them. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon used to call bitcoin a fraud but later regretted making the statement about the cryptocurrency. In addition, JPMorgan Chase is recently said to have accepted two bitcoin exchanges, Coinbase and Gemini, as banking clients. #Bitcoin More on: https://news.bitcoin.com/goldman-sachs-bitcoin-cryptocurrency/