A fresh set of images from New Horizons, the first spacecraft ever to reach Pluto, shows a snail-like object slithering on its surface. The images were sent to Earth from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI).

One fascinating image shows what looks like a giant snail “sliding” through the planet’s surface, reports the Sun. The mysterious object is considered by NASA experts to be a "dirty block of water ice." According to the experts, the block appears to be slithering because it is probably now floating in a dense region packed with solid nitrogen.

Another interesting facet of the image is the large number of pits that are visible on the surface of the planet. According to NASA experts, these pits could have formed as a result of the process of sublimation. Sublimation occurs when a substance transforms directly from the solid to gaseous state.

Describing it “more like a tree bark or dragon scales than geology,” William McKinnon, New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team deputy lead from Washington University, calls it a “unique and perplexing landscape.”

The latest pictures from NASA show new details of the Sputnik Planum – the icy plain on the western half of Pluto. It is believed that great globules of solid nitrogen are warmed by Pluto's "modest internal heat" before rising up to the surface, cooling and sinking back down again.

"This part of Pluto is acting like a lava lamp," said McKinnon. "If you can imagine a lava lamp as wide as, and even deeper than, the Hudson Bay,” he added.

NASA has also released a new composite image of Pluto’s so-called Viking Terra region, showing dark spots that are believed to be aggregations of tholin (soot or tar-like matter created by reactions involving methane and nitrogen). The image also shows bright, light rims of the many craters, which are likely to be created by methane ice.

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