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NASA May have found Ice Volcanoes on Pluto

By Kanika Gupta | Update Date: Jan 21, 2016 10:37 AM EST

New Horizon's mission by NASA just recently unveiled high-resolution images of possible cryovolcanoes, or the ice volcanoes, found on the surface of Pluto. This image comes from the spacecraft's flyby in 2015 July that shows a formation of land called the 'Wright Mons', names after the famous Wright Brothers. This formation spreads across an area of 150 kilometers across and at least 4 kilometers in height at the base of a well known heart-shaped reason and point at a possibility of a volcano on the surface of the dwarf planet, reported IBN Live.

If the surface is the ice volcano that it is thought to be, then it would be the biggest cryovolcano ever discovered in the outer solar system that ejects gases and ice. According to the scientists, this surface was only just created recently and might also suggest that the Wright Mons was active in the past.

The possibility of these volcanoes has been known to NASA since the last year but the image was only released this month, giving the scientists a comprehensive look at one of the possible sites where such activity can take place. The New Horizons spacecraft zoomed past the site to take closer images and has been sending the data ever since, as reported by CNET. Pluto is a strangely diverse planet, say the scientists. The surface of Pluto is covered with icy plains, cratered regions and possible dunes. There is also an area in the pitted region that sometimes acts as an icy lava lamp.

These volcanoes are known to spew out nitrogen gas, methane, ammonia and ice slush, as opposed to the molten rock spitted by the volcanoes on earth. Scientists believe that perhaps there are ice volcanos on Titan, Saturn's moon, too. "To put them in perspective -- if Mount Vesuvius had been a cryovolcano, its lava would have frozen the residents of Pompeii," says NASA scientist Rosaly Lopes, news.com.au reported

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