All About Space

23 There are mountains on Pluto

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A tiny world at the edge of the Solar System, scientists assumed the dwarf planet would have a fairly uniform, crater-pocked environmen­t. That changed when New Horizons flew by in 2015, sending back pictures that altered our view of Pluto forever. Among the astounding discoverie­s were icy mountains that are 3,300 metres (11,000 feet) high, indicating that Pluto must have been geological­ly active as little as 100 million years ago. Geological activity requires energy, and the source of that energy inside Pluto is a mystery. The Sun is too far away from Pluto to generate enough heat for geological activity and there are no large planets nearby that could have caused such disruption with gravity.

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