A batch of dome-shaped ice volcanoes that look unlike anything else known in our solar system and may still be active have been identified on Pluto using data from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, showing that this remote frigid world is more dynamic than previously known.
Scientists said on Tuesday that these cryovolcanoes - numbering perhaps 10 or more - stand anywhere from six-tenths of a mile to 4-1/2 miles tall. Unlike Earth volcanoes that spew gases and molten rock, this dwarf planet's cryovolcanoes extrude large amounts of ice - apparently frozen water rather than some other frozen material - that may have the consistency of toothpaste, they said.
Images and data analyzed in the new study, obtained in 2015 by New Horizons, validated previous hypotheses about cryovolcanism on Pluto. The researchers analyzed an area southwest of Sputnik Planitia, Pluto's large heart-shaped basin filled with nitrogen ice. They found large domes 18-60 miles across, sometimes combining to form more complexly shaped structures.
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