May 01, 2022
Images taken by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) New Horizons spacecraft show a batch of dome-shaped ice volcanoes on Pluto. These cryovolcanoes are very different from anything found in our solar system and scientists believe they were active till relatively recently. The volcanoes ooze frozen water that has the consistency of toothpaste. This discovery also suggests that the interior of Pluto was hotter till much later than what was previously believed. According to the study, the Wright Mons volcano is around 5kms high and 150kms wide, which is almost the same volume as Mauna Loa, a volcano in Hawaii, USA—one of the largest volcanoes on Earth.
Did You Know?
Pluto is smaller than Earth’s moon.
