The New Horizons mission of NASA has released a new high-resolution colour image captured by it of one of the two possible cryovolcanoes, also called ice volcanoes, spotted on the surface of Pluto, IBN Live reports.
Mission scientists are confused with the scanty distribution of red material in the image and wonder why it is not more widespread.
Also, the scientists have observed that there is only one identified impact crater on Wright Mons itself, telling scientists that the surface was created relatively recently, according to Earth Sky.
The image was captured from the spacecraft's flyby in July 2015.
The image depicts a land formation called 'Wright Mons'- named after the Wright brothers. The land formation spans about 150 kilometers across and is 4 kilometers high.
It is located at the bottom of the famous heart-shaped region of Pluto and indicates the presence of a potential volcano on the dwarf planet's surface.
If the landform captured in the image is indeed is that of a cryovolcano, then it could be the biggest volcano discovered in the outer solar system.
Ice volcanoes eject a slush containing ice, nitrogen, ammonia and methane. Scientists suspect ice volcanoes exist on Saturn's moon Titan and Neptune's moon Triton.
"To put them in perspective -- if Mount Vesuvius had been a cryovolcano, its lava would have frozen the residents of Pompeii," says NASA scientist Rosaly Lopes, according to CNET.
