Pluto's giant ice volcanoes hint at possibility of life, study finds

Images of Pluto's surface revealed ice volcanoes, hinting at the possibility of life, according to a new photo analysis published Tuesday in Nature Communications.

The images, captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft's flyby of the dwarf planet and its moons in July 2015, are still being interpreted by scientists. 

The analysis revealed an area of Pluto located southwest of the Sputnik Planitia ice shee that had few impact craters and ridges of ice, a landscape usually only created by multiple eruptions. 

"The existence of these massive features suggests Pluto’s interior structure and evolution allows for either enhanced retention of heat or more heat overall than was anticipated before New Horizons," reads the study. 

The lack of crater impacts in the area suggests that the volcanoes were active rather recently. Although there is no current volcanic activity, that does not mean the volcanoes are not active, according to study author Kelsi Singer, senior research scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. 

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The finding of these volcanoes suggests that Pluto's subsurface ocean is still present, and the possibility that it potentially could be habitable. 

"There are still a lot of challenges for any organisms trying to survive there," Singer told CNN. "They would still need some source of continual nutrients, and if the volcanism is episodic and thus the heat and water availability is variable, that is sometimes tough for organisms as well." 

Pluto, about half the size of the United States, is a cold planet on the edge of our solar system with an average temperature of negative 387 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NASA.