NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft visited Pluto almost a decade ago, and since then, the dwarf planet continues to reveal its surprising complexity.
Recently, scientists studying data collected by the spacecraft identified an unusual crater near a bright, heart-shaped region on Pluto known as Sputnik Planitia.
According to experts, this discovery could be a supervolcano that erupted just a few million years ago. Although in cosmic terms this may seem ancient, considering that our solar system is more than 4.5 billion years old, it would actually be considered a fairly recent event.
But what makes this discovery even more intriguing is that instead of spewing molten rock like Earth’s volcanoes, this crater, called Kiladze and with a diameter of 44 km, would have spewed frozen lava onto the surface of Pluto, a process known as cryovolcanism, and which is something that also occurs on the moons of gas giants.
Is the existence of an ice supervolcano on Pluto possible?
Despite its extreme distance from the Sun, Pluto presents unique landscapes in the Solar System, defying expectations of being a completely frozen world.
Therefore, the present study raises questions about the heat source that drove this cryovolcanic activity on such a dwarf planet that should have lost its heat a long time ago due to its size.
Although it is not yet fully understood how this process works, according to Space.com Scientists suggest that pockets of liquid water inside Pluto could have been the source of the heat. Of course, more research is clearly needed to fully understand this phenomenon.
The crater analyzed by scientists showed similarities to those caused by meteorite impacts. However, the absence of a central peak, typical in these events, suggests another explanation. Additionally, Kiladze shows an elongated shape, indicating possible internal tectonic forces on Pluto.
Although how cryovolcanic activity works on Pluto is not fully understood due to its relatively small size and age, the dwarf planet’s internal heat appears to be more substantial than previously believed. The truth is that the exact source of this heat is still unknown, but it appears to be preventing Pluto’s underground ocean from freezing.
This discovery sheds new light on the complexity of Pluto and demonstrates that there is still much to learn about the celestial bodies of our solar system, even those located in its most distant regions.