Volcanoes on the surface of Pluto emit icy water

At a distance of 4.5 billion kilometers from the Sun, Pluto holds many secrets. Launched in 2015 by the American research team New Horizons, the star, which has long been touted as the ninth planet in the solar system (before being downgraded to a dwarf planet) is gradually revealing some mysteries.

Analysis of different scenarios indicates that a cryovolcanic activity, in other words, has more recently animated ice volcanoes and its surface. (Nature Communications, March 29, 2022). “We only have a few snapshots to read Pluto. Tangui Bertrand, an astronomer at NASA and the Paris Laboratory, who co-signed the work, warns. It is therefore completely impossible to say whether this activity continues today or whether the cryovolcanos we discovered are extinct.

An ice cream scoop

The average surface temperature of the planet does not exceed -225 C, we have extreme conditions that change the structure and properties of the components