Scientists have found another ice-volcano on Pluto

Pluto used to be a planet in our solar system. It is still there where it was before, but it no longer has status of a planet. But this does not stop us from studying it of course.

Thanks to NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, we got the clearest-ever image of Pluto not even a decade ago. The scientists are now analysing the treasure trove of data and images collected by New Horizons. They have now found a new 'cryovolcano',a volcano that spews water and ice.

Kiladze Caldera, the newly-discovered volcano, was earlier thought to be an impact crater. An impact crater is a structure made on the surface of the planet by a falling meteorite.

NASA planetary scientist Dale Cruikshank is the lead author of this study, as reported by Newsweek.

Scientists did suspect before that Kiladze Caldera was not an impact crater. A reason behind this is that Kiladze had an odd structure for it to be a crater. It is surrounded by water ice, which is usually found hidden below Pluto's methane snows and matter from 'smog' on Pluto.

The team of scientists also found evidence of ammonia that's mixed in water ice. Since Ammonia pushes freezing point of water downwards, it allows the water to flow as liquid cryo-lava on the surface of Pluto.

Kiladze is surrounded by water ice. This suggests that the cryovolcano is quite young or at least that an eruption had taken place in recent past.

"We estimate that the age of Kiladze and surroundings (since the last eruption) is only a few million years," said Cruikshank as quoted by The Newsweek.

There are other icy volcanoes on the planet as well. They are Wright Mons and Piccard Mons.

The study has reportedly published in journal Icarus and on pre-prnt database arXiv.

(With inputs from agencies)