NASA scientists found a new geological activity on the dwarf planet Pluto which is truly unique: there are floating hills that move over time, albeit at very low speeds. These hills in the area informally called Sputnik Planum are probably smaller versions of the great mountains at the western border of the area. For their behavior, they have been compared to the Earth’s icebergs.

Sputnik Planum is in the heart of Pluto, in the sense that it’s a part of the large heart-shaped area of ​​the dwarf planet. It’s characterized by glaciers of various types because there’s a sort of sea of ​​frozen nitrogen on which the hills composed of water ice can float. This may seem strange but when nitrogen solidifies its density becomes higher than that of water ice.

The consequence is that the hills composed of water ice can slide over the sea consisting of nitrogen ice. It’s a phenomenon similar to what happens on Earth, where icebergs float on the seas. On Pluto, the hills are not part of polar ice caps but of glaciers of water ice that originate in the area shown at the right border of the image. The fragments that break away from that area are transported by the nitrogen sea.

Scientists believe that the nitrogen ice generates convective movements that drive hills moving them through Sputnik Planum. In the region informally named Challenger Colles after of the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger destroyed in the 1986 tragedy the hills density seems to be particularly high embracing an area of ​​about 60 by 35 kilometers (37 by 22 miles) in size.

The hills speed is very low so they may take millions of years to move from the source glaciers to other areas a few hundred kilometers far away. The photograph of the area was taken by the New Horizons space probe’s MVIC (Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera) instrument from a distance of about 16,000 kilometers (9,950 miles) from Pluto. The shooting occurred a few minutes before its closest approach during the extraordinary July 14, 2015 flyby.

Phenomena such as the floating hills show a type of still ongoing geologic activity on Pluto despite the very low temperatures. It explains why the ice in a heart-shaped area are relatively young, with an age estimated at about 10 million years. Waiting for the other data that the New Horizons space probe is still transmitting, answers on the Pluto’s mysteries have started arriving.

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