Skyscraper-size spikes of methane ice may surround Pluto's equator

One of the strangest landforms spotted by NASA New Horizons spacecraft when it flew past Pluto last July was the bladed terrain just east of Tombaugh Regio, the informal name given to Pluto large heart-shaped surface feature.

Skyscraper-size spires of mehtane ice may cover around 60% of Pluto's equatorial region — a larger area than scientists previously estimated, new research finds.

The study, published July 5 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, was based on data collected by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which captured the first close-up images of the tiny world a decade ago, on July 14, 2015.