There are peculiar ice formations that sail through the “heart” of Pluto and that seem to move aimlessly. The Region of Tombaugh is known as Pluto’s heart due to its shape. It’s the largest part with light in this small planet.
We are talking about a big plain area which is composed by nitrogen ice and that forms incredible glaciers in its limit zones. The west lobule of the ice heart is made of about 1000 kilometers of nitrogen and other ices and its called Sputnik Planum.
It is believed that this zone was created after a very large impact on the surface of Pluto and that the hole created by it was then filled by a mix of water, nitrogen and ammonia. From the images we get thanks to the space probe, New Horizon we can admire the Ice Mountains that are about 20 kilometers long.
The thing that draws the most attention from scientists about this geological phenomenon is its short age. The NASA is fascinated by the incredible geological activity of Pluto. They confirm that this mountains float in a frozen nitrogen sea and move in the same way as icebergs in the Arctic Ocean on Earth.
The reason why they float is because nitrogen ice is considerably denser than water ice. This mountain chain can reach even 3.4 kilometers high like the Norgay Mountains or 1.6 kilometers like the case of the Hillary mountains.
Outer space has always meant a great mystery for the human race, for its unreachable distance, for the beauty we can admire lying on the grass at night and for the fairy tales we have always been imagining. Day by day and thanks to many technological investigations we can gather more information about the universe. Maybe someday we will be able to touch and feel part of it and answer all of our questions.
