NASA scientists have pieced together the most detailed image yet of one of two giant mountains on Pluto that they suspect might be ice volcanoes.
This feature, nicknamed Wright Mons, is about 90 miles wide and 2.5 miles high. If it really is a volcano, it would be the largest one ever discovered in the outer solar system, according to NASA.
You can see an opening on the mountain's summit near the center of the close-up image on the right.
"These are big mountains with a large hole in their summit, and on Earth that generally means one thing - a volcano," Oliver White, a New Horizons researcher, said in an earlier press release.
Scientists have also only identified one impact crater on Wright Mons which suggests that section of Pluto's surface was created fairly recently. Older terrain would be riddled with impact craters since Pluto is surrounded by a field of asteroids, comets, and other small rocky bodies.
The lack of craters suggests that something has repaved Pluto's surface recently, adding further evidence that Wright Mons was volcanically active not long ago, and could have recently spewed out a fresh coat of icy slush to cover the surface of the dwarf planet.
The New Horizons spacecraft that flew past Pluto in July 2015 is still returning data to Earth, so geologists may learn more about these possible ice volcanoes on Pluto soon.
Here's the full image of Pluto's mountain terrain:
