Pluto has 11,000 feet high, young ice mountains: NASA

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which successfully made a historic flyby of Pluto, has discovered young ice mountains on the dwarf planet which are as high as 11,000 feet and about 100 million years old.

New close-up images of a region near Pluto's equator show a range of youthful mountains rising as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) above the surface of the icy body, NASA said. The mountains likely formed no more than 100 million years ago - mere youngsters relative to the 4.56-billion-year age of the solar system - and may still be in the process of building, said Geology, Geophysics and Imaging (GGI) team leader Jeff Moore of NASA's Ames Research Centre in California.

That suggests the close-up region, may still be geologically active on Thursday, researchers said.