Now scientists suspect that miniature versions of those icy mountains have drifted out onto the wide, flat plains of the area known as Sputnik Planum, located in Pluto’s heart-shaped region. As a NASA press release today explains: Some of the icy hills form chains that stretch up to 12 miles across. Although finding more water ice anywhere else in the universe is exciting, it probably doesn’t raise Pluto’s changes for life — the planet is still likely too distant and thus likely too cold to support liquid water or any associated lifeforms. But the findings do shed more light on the surface conditions of this mysterious alien world on the edge of our solar system.
