The icy wonderland in Pluto keeps revealing something new now and then. Now, US space agency NASA has found what they are calling floating hills right in Pluto’s heart.
Pluto's water ice hills “float” in a sea of frozen nitrogen & move over time like icebergs: https://t.co/1hxl26xcAy pic.twitter.com/c5MCxO37wg
— NASA (@NASA) February 4, 2016
NASA released a photo, which was captured by the New Horizons Spacecraft on February 4, 2015.
The mysterious floating hills have been found in a vast ice plain inside the little Pluto’s so-called "heart". Scientists believe that these frozen hills stretch for miles.
As per the scientists at NASA, these floating hills are nothing but bits and pieces of water ice, which somehow tend to have a distinct resemblance with giant glaciers, just like those icebergs found on our beloved planet, Earth.
Since nitrogen ice is heavier than water ice, these icy hills are found floating above a sea of nitrogen. NASA scientists have said that the movement of these water ice chunks is also similar to that of the icebergs in the Arctic Ocean on Earth.
NASA revealed this image after its revelation that Pluto is covered with way more ice than NASA had previously thought it does. After stitching together two of the pictures captured by New Horizons, the US space agency made the water ice discovery.
Pluto’s surface is covered with huge ice mountains. The revelation of Pluto containing water in abundance is huge because, for the existence of any form of life, water plays a significant role.
Image Credit: NASA.gov
