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Two possible ice volcanoes have been identified on the surface of Pluto.
They are seen in images returned from the New Horizons probe, which flew past the distant dwarf planet in July.
The mountains are several km high and tens of km across, and each has what appears to be a depression in the top.
Unlike Earth volcanoes that spew molten rock, Pluto's volcanoes - if that is what they are - would likely erupt an icy slush of substances such as water, nitrogen, ammonia or methane.
The suggestion was raised at the 47th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences, where the mission team is presenting over 50 research reports from the flyby.
The scientists still need to do further work to confirm their volcano idea.
Read more here. (BBC)
They are seen in images returned from the New Horizons probe, which flew past the distant dwarf planet in July.
The mountains are several km high and tens of km across, and each has what appears to be a depression in the top.
Unlike Earth volcanoes that spew molten rock, Pluto's volcanoes - if that is what they are - would likely erupt an icy slush of substances such as water, nitrogen, ammonia or methane.
The suggestion was raised at the 47th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences, where the mission team is presenting over 50 research reports from the flyby.
The scientists still need to do further work to confirm their volcano idea.
Read more here. (BBC)
