Detecting hills 'drifting' on Pluto's nitrogen glacier

NASA has just announced the discovery of hills floating on a nitrogen glacier at Pluto's surface. Images provided by New Horizon explorer ship to Earth.

NASA has discovered the hills found on the nitrogen glacier of this distant asteroid. They move in a similar way to icebergs on Earth. Scientists say this is the result of geological activity on the surface of Pluto.

These hills are separated from each other.

NASA also said that these hills are separated from each other. They can be formed by debris from the rugged mountains of the dwarf planet. Ice hills are found in the "heart" flat Sputnik Planum flat area and located near the center of Pluto.

One of the most convincing explanations at the moment is that these hills may be a smaller version of Sputnik Planum. Regarding the rise of the hill is explained that, ice has a lower density than nitrogen ice so they float on the surface of dense nitrogen ice sinks below.

As the glaciers escaped the area of ​​the large mountains, they floated down into the Sputnik Planum plains and formed a chain of glaciers. A chain of ice hills on Pluto has an estimated size of 35 - 60km.

It is known that the image was taken back by the explorer New Horizon about 12 minutes before approaching the nearest surface of the Pluto on July 14, 2015.