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On
Pluto
there is an area marked by the relatively recent activity
of ice volcanoes
that reach
up to seven kilometers in height
, according to a study published in '
Nature Communications
'.
The
images of Pluto
taken by
NASA
's
New Horizons
spacecraft have allowed a team led by the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado (United States) to examine an area dominated by
large irregular elevations
to the southwest of Sputnik Planitia, the icy plain near the planet's equator.
The team write that similar features do not exist anywhere else in the solar system and have analyzed the geomorphology and composition to conclude that this region was created by cryovolcanic processes, "of a type and scale hitherto unique to Pluto."
Cryovolcanism (
ice
volcanism) has been observed in various places in the solar system and describes the emplacement of icy material by volcanic processes.
The study indicates that the region has many volcanic domes (dome-shaped structure) ranging from a few kilometers to seven kilometers in height and between 10 and 150 kilometers in width, some of which merge to create larger structures.
The current landscape configuration would have required multiple eruption sites and a large volume of material to form the ice volcanoes.
The terrain analyzed is
free of impact craters
, which contrasts with other places on the planet's surface, therefore, the cryovolcanic activity in the area must be relatively recent in Pluto's history.
This may indicate that the internal structure of the planet has residual heat or more heat than expected, to drive such cryovolcanic activity.
The existence of these features suggests -according to the signatories- that "Pluto's interior structure and its evolution allow greater heat retention or more heat in general than was expected", which allowed the mobilization of ice-rich materials from Water.
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