Planetologists have long speculated on the nature of the Wright and Piccard mountains on Pluto, discovered by the American probe New Horizons, in 2015, during a long transit to this dwarf planet. Are they the result of volcanic activity? Are these ice volcanoes? Their origin is all the more mysterious because of the absence of calderas – circular depressions that form following eruptions.
It is thanks to a complete analysis of the images and data collected by the probe that scientists, who publish their results in Nature, determined that the mountains were not per se ice volcanoes. They would rather be the result, according to The Guardian, from “the fusion of several of them, some reaching a height of 7 000 meters and 10 to 15 kilometers in diameter”. This discovery, continues the British daily, immediately revived another debate: “What could keep Pluto warm enough to