Rather, they believe that the dwarf, which scientists believe contain radioactive elements uranium and thorium, actually became heated due to interior radioactive decay — which, fascinatingly, took the body from cold, to hot, to cold once again, as opposed to the hot-to-cold pattern traditionally seen in larger planets.

"What we've shown in this paper is that radiogenic heating all on its own is enough to create interesting geology," Scott King, a Virginia Tech professor of geosciences, said in the press release.

Hopefully, this model will be able to provide some insight into how other dwarf planets, and even some moons, came to be.