Pluto may no longer be a part of the nine planets of the Solar System officially, but it is still very much a topic of interest to many researchers and novices. When the spacecraft New Horizons sent back images of Pluto from it’s flypast, a whole new basket of information was revealed about the distant, dwarf planet.

The fact that Pluto is a cold planet is not a surprise to anyone given it’s distance from the sun. What is an interesting fact is that the icy surface of the planet is constantly renewed by a process known as convection. The layer of solid nitrogen ice within Pluto’s distinctive “heart” feature, which is a large plain informally known as Sputnik Planum, was brought out in images from New Horizons.

The ice on the surface is not millions of years old, rather it seems relatively newly formed as per the data the scientists have gathered. This points to some sort of geological activity under the surface for the planet. The soft nitrogen ice is a pliable material for the geological changes to occur. The scientific study of this phenomenon is going to continue for a while before definite reasons can be found for its origin.