NASA’s New Horizons mission, conducted in 2006, captured detailed images of the surface of Pluto, a dwarf planet and the largest object in the Kuiper Belt. A recent study analyzed images of a region with two large mounds called Wright Mons and Piccard Mons, which scientists have proposed as ice volcanoes. Wright Mons is a mountain that reaches heights of 4 to 5 kilometers and spans approximately 150 kilometers, while Piccard Mons stands at around 7 kilometers tall and spans 250 kilometers.
Image: The surface of Pluto captured by the New Horizons spacecraft in 2015. Photo: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Isaac Herrera/Kelsi Singer
In the study, scientists concluded that the terrain surrounding these mounds is likely formed by relatively recent activity of cryovolcanoes, also known as ice volcanoes.
This discovery raises the possibility that these volcanoes may still be active, with liquid water or similar substances flowing or having recently flowed beneath the surface of Pluto.
Recent activity also suggests that the planet may be warmer than previously thought by scientists. With other recent studies, scientists have even speculated that their findings could enhance the possibility of subsurface life on Pluto.
Another image of the surface of Pluto. Photo: NASA
The mountains have extremely deep craters at their peaks, and many parts of this region have irregular and rugged shapes formed by circular mounds.
The lead author of the study, planetary scientist Kelsi Singer from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, told Space.com, “There’s nowhere else on Pluto that looks like this. And it’s completely unique in the solar system.”
Unlike other regions on Pluto, this area has few or no impact craters, indicating that the surface is relatively young in geological terms. Based on the lack of impact craters, this region could be no more than 1 or 2 billion years old, with some areas possibly as young as 200 million years old.
The study was published on March 29 in the journal Nature Communications.