Pluto is almost completely covered with water ice, and we know about it for quite a long time. In the very first photo, sent by NASA's New Horizons probe after flying past this dwarf planet last summer, we saw huge mountains, which most likely consist of water ice.
Now, scientists suspect that miniature copies of these icy mountains drift across wide flat plains, known as the Satellite Plains and located in a bright heart-shaped area.
According to a NASA press release:
"Since the density of water ice is lower than that of nitrogen ice, we believe that these water icebergs float in a sea of frozen nitrogen, like icebergs in the Arctic Ocean on Earth."
Some of the chains of such ice forms are drawn up to 20 kilometers in length.
Although it is very exciting to find water ice outside the Earth, this finding does not increase Pluto’s chances of having life - the planet is too far from the Sun and too cold to maintain liquid water or any forms of life we know. However, research results shed more light on the conditions on the surface of this mysterious alien world on the border of our solar system.
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