Unexpectedly discovered giant icebergs on Pluto

Analyzing high resolution images sent to Earth, scientists from the US Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) were shocked to discover a giant iceberg on Pluto. These photos were taken by New Horizons spacecraft.

NASA discovered giant icebergs on Pluto

This ice mountain is 3,350 meters high. On the other hand, the geological activity is still under the surface of Pluto. Scientists predict that icebergs formed about 100 million years ago and may still be in the process of creating.

High resolution images of Pluto - (NASA screenshot)

Similar to the rest of Pluto , this mountain continually suffers from collisions with meteorites in space. This process has been going on for billions of years and in the past there was a big collision.

The composition of the mountains on Pluto is mostly ice. This is considered to be the first celestial object observed by scientists, whose surface is mostly ice and does not belong to any planet's orbit.

New Horizons spacecraft - (NASA screenshot)

New Horizons captured the pictures when it was about 770,000 km from the surface of Pluto. About 90 minutes later, New Horizons continued to lower the altitude to the closest distance ever. The images taken at this time will help NASA accurately identify other smaller structures on the surface of Pluto.

At the same time, scientists also received many other images from New Horizons about the moons of Hydra and Charon of Pluto.

They discovered cliffs and geological cracks that stretched about 1,000 km on the surface of Charon, which was 7 to 9 km deep. This may be a consequence of the transformation process within the moon.

Much of the data is still in the memory of New Horizons and is expected to be transmitted to Earth soon. NASA will spend 16 months analyzing data as well as publishing images and observing scientific observations.