NASA’s New Horizon Spacecraft, which had previously sent details about methane snow and ice volcano have now sent some new images which clearly indicate that there are frozen lakes on the surface of the planet.
According to experts, the surface had lakes in the recent past, and it will have more like them in the future as well. New Horizon’s lead scientist Alan Stern on March 28, 2016 told that variations in the sunlight reaching the planet has direct impacts in determining its temperature, and this is the reason behind the frozen state of lakes.
NASA after releasing the image told in a statement that the formation in the image appears to be a frozen, former lake of liquid nitrogen, located in a mountain range.
Even during the warmest days, Pluto is very much cold for surface lakes made up of water. When planet’s atmosphere gets bulked up, they could contain liquid nitrogen as well. Pluto usually takes more than 248 Earth Years to complete its rotation around Sun.
Experts in NASA believe that the lake is filled with frozen liquid nitrogen. Scientists claim that this lake is of 430 feet long and about 20 miles at its widest point.
Stern in a recent talk told that atmospheric pressure in Pluto is typically low now, and in the past, it could have been 1000 or 10000 times higher.
The planet is now in its intermediate phase between its climatic extremes, while the last peak occurred around 1 million years ago. Temperature in Pluto ranges from -375 Degree Celsius to -400 Degree Celsius.
The new lake which has been identified is named ‘Sputnik Platinum’. New Horizons started its course to Pluto in 2006.
