New Horizons images of the planet's surface reveal icy volcanic domes the size of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa.
ice sheet may once have been a hotbed of cryovolcanic activity. Today, it’s covered in enormous domes that are carpeted with smaller bumps and form a rough, “undulating” terrain, Singer says.
The lumpy features visible in the pictures snapped by New Horizons as it zipped past Pluto in 2015 cover an area of about 300 by 600 kilometers, or 186.4 by 372.8 miles. However, there may be even more signs of volcanic activity shrouded in darkness, Singer says. The team realized that the region was dotted with mounds from many different vent sites, some of which had merged together over time. Additionally, the researchers identified bumps that appear to be “overprinted” on older features, indicating that multiple volcanic episodes had occurred.
During its flyby, New Horizons also collected data on the terrain’s chemical composition. The researchers determined that the cryovolcanic mounds were primarily water ice with smaller amounts of frozen nitrogen and other compounds mixed in. Different types of ice have their own melting points and other properties, Singer says, which would have influenced how the structures formed.
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