Eris: Pluto's Squishy Twin Revealed
New models based on data from radio telescopes in Chile have revealed that Eris, a dwarf planet located billions of miles beyond Neptune, is surprisingly squishy. The heat leftover from its birth is causing Eris to behave more like a soft cheese, with its icy surface slowly flexing. Eris is considered an "almost perfect" twin of Pluto, and the new findings suggest it has a rocky core enveloped by a convecting icy shell. Scientists hope to obtain measurements of Eris' shape to further validate their model.