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Image

Courtesy of Southwest Research Institute
Caption
SwRI scientists used data from the James Webb Space Telescope to model the subsurface geothermal processes that could explain how methane ended up on the surfaces of Eris and Makemake, two dwarf planets in the distant Kuiper Belt. The illustration points to three possibilities, including the potential that liquid water exists within these icy bodies at the edge of the solar system, far from the heat of the Sun.