Ice Volcanoes On Pluto?

Two possible ice volcanoes have been identified on Pluto's surface.

17:51 12 November 2015

Through New Horizons probe, which flew past Pluto in July, two possible ice volcanoes have been identified on the surface of the distant dwarf planet.

 

The mountains appeared to be several km high and tens of km across with a depression in the top.

 

Pluto's volcanoes, unlike those here on Earth, would likely to erupt icy slush of substances such as water, nitrogen, ammonia, or methane.

 

"If we can constrain the compositions of these features then we'd have something to work with, with respect to modelling how this particular ice would behave if it were to be erupted volcanically, and what sort of relief it might be able to sustain," said Dr Oliver White from the US space agency (Nasa).

 

"It's just astounding that in all of the exploration that we have done, that the nearest neighbour analogy to these constructs occurs on Mars," commented Prof Alan Stern, the principal investigator on the New Horizons mission.

 

"You have to look all the way to the 'other Red Planet' to find something similar.

 

"Across all the worlds of the middle Solar System, we've seen nothing like this. It's truly amazing."