Pluto has been found to have two possible ice volcanoes on its surface with similar structures with volcanoes on Earth. However, unlike volcanoes on Earth releasing molten rocks, Pluto’s volcanoes would potentially erupt with icy substances, NASA reports.

The new images from the New Horizons spacecraft of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reveal the two enormous mountains at the southern area of the heart-shaped region on Pluto’s surface. Experts informally named the volcanoes as Wright Mons and Picard Mons.

Images show that both Wright and Picard have a central crater similar to peaks called "shield volcanoes" on Earth and Mars. The volcanoes also have flanks that display hummocky textures which may indicate old lava-like flows.

“These are big mountains with a large hole in their summit, and on Earth that generally means one thing -- a volcano,” Oliver White, New Horizons postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Centre in California, said in a press release. “If they are volcanic, then the summit depression would likely have formed via collapse as material is erupted from underneath.”

Experts believe that the two assumed volcanoes would erupt an icy slush of substances, including water, nitrogen, ammonia or methane, if these are active. However, scientists noted that further analysis is needed to fully identify Wright and Picard as volcanoes.

The idea was presented at the 47th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences on Monday.

Part of the future analysis on the two volcano candidates on Pluto is to know the source of heat inside the planet, important to create a volcano on the surface. Experts consider two possibilities that were also presented at the conference.

First, is the presence of ammonia-water slurry mantle beneath the surface, according to the American Astronomical Society. Another possibility is the progressively cooling rocky core of the dwarf planet, originally heated during its formation.

"Across all the worlds of the middle Solar System, we've seen nothing like this. It's truly amazing," said Alan Stern, the principal investigator on the New Horizons mission.

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