NASA researchers stated cracks on the surface of Charon, Pluto's moon, could indicate that there once existed an underground ocean on the planet. 

Pluto is one of the farthest members of the Solar System. It orbits the Sun at a distance 29 times farther than Earth. The surface temperature was recorded to be 380 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, and its environment was believed to be icy which is capable of sustaining water in its liquid form. Scientists believed that the moons revolving around the icy planet have the same harsh conditions.

The U.S. space agency's New Horizons, a NASA spacecraft launched in 2006 and expected to reach Pluto in 2015, gathered details and make the closest observations on the planet and its moons.

"Our model predicts different fracture patterns on the surface of Charon depending on the thickness of its surface ice, the structure of the moon's interior and how easily it deforms, and how its orbit evolved," said Alyssa Rhoden of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. in a press release.

Rhoden also explained that the researchers would use the data that New Horizons would send and compare it to the existing models and previous theories to develop a research design aiming to find out if Charon once had an underground ocean many years ago.

Aside from Charon, other moons and planets in our Solar System also showed cracked surfaces including Europa, Jupiter's moon and Enceladus, Saturn's moon.

In the case of Charon, its high eccentricity may have produced tides, which in turn, caused the surface fractures and friction. The moon is massive for its home planet; data showed that it was roughly one-eighth of Pluto's mass. Scientists believed that Charon was once part of Pluto but got separated after a massive impact. After some years, it became a moon and established its own orbit around Pluto.

Further details of the study were published in the June 16 issue of Icarus.