For decades the ninth planet in the solar system Pluto has been a mystery to many. Even whether or not it could be classified an actual planet or a dwarf has been debated. Maybe this had a whole lot to do with how much of an enigma Pluto was to scientists here on Earth. After all, the planet was too far out for most to get a good picture of that is till now. It would seem that after ten years of heading to Pluto to get a good look at it, NASA’s New Horizon Space Probe was finally able to send back images of the small ice planet.

Ice Towers Found on Pluto

So, what was actually discovered on Pluto? Well, it turns out that Pluto has one thing in common with the earth in its icy regions, and that is ice towers. However, due to how frigidly cold Pluto is their ice towers measure up to 500 meters in length whereas those found on the earth usually in cold mountain regions are only around 5 meters in heights which are roughly 16 feet.

The giant ridges found in the images are known as penitentes and seem to cover a region of Pluto that is now called Tartarus Dorsa. The formations seem to have blue and gray ridges which seem to be standing on what could only be described as a red surface. The question now is because these types of formations were found on two planets in the solar system is it possible that there could be ice towers on other planets as well? So, far scientists have only seen these on earth and now on Pluto. But we now know that there are other planets out there beyond our known solar system, such as Planet X.

As the head of a group at the York University in Canada, engineer John Moores was quoted as saying:

“This test of our terrestrial models for penitentes suggests that we may find these features elsewhere in the Solar System, “says Moores, “and in other solar systems, where the conditions are right.”

Yes, who knows what we will discover in the future as we continue to study other planets. After all, who would have thought that one day we would actually have such good pictures of Pluto that tells us more about this planet that has eluded us for so long?

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