Pluto Giant Ice

    NASA's New Horizons mission revolutioned our knowledge of Pluto when it flew past that distant world in July 2015. Among its many discoveries were images of strange formations resembling giant knife blades of ice, whose origin had remained a mystery.

Now, scientists have turned up a fascinating explanation for this "bladed terrain". the structures are made almost entirely of methane ice, and likely formed as a specific kind of erosion wore away their surfaces, leaving dramatic crests and sharp divides.

These jagged geological ridges are found at the highest altitudes on Pluto surface, near its equator, and can soar many hundreds of feet into the sky - as high as a New York city skyscrappers. They are one of the most puzzling feature types on Pluto, and it now appears the blades are related to Pluto's complex climate and geological history.

Pluto Mystery:

Scientists found the Ice caps on higher altitudes of Pluto mountain, which mostly are Methane Ice. They found by using high spectral image of Pluto taken by New Horizons spacecraft. It encountered the hemisphere of Pluto. Scientists predict that the Methane ice evaporates into gases and gases again converted into Methane ice, a process called Sublimation. Similar type of cycle takes place in Earth also.

Methane is now linked in higher elevations, researchers can use the data that indicates where methane is present around Pluto's globe. This provides opportunity to map out altitudes of some parts of Pluto's surface not captured in high resolution, where bladed terrains also appear to exist.

Credits:

Text and Image Credit : NASA

More Information:

• Pluto Ice Strange Formation
• Results of Ice Formation - New Horizons
• Pluto Ice Mystery NASA

See Video on Pluto Ice:

This video was taken from NASA official youtube channel.