The recent batch of New Horizons photographs of Pluto did not only include breathtaking images of the solar system's smallest planet. It also included a bizarre image that shows a snail-like figure ponderously inching toward what appears to be a crossroads at first glance.
NASA experts, on the other hand, believe that the object, which was captured by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), is a mere block of ice floating in a dense solid nitrogen. The theory is that it must have been dragged to the edge by a phenomenon called "convection cell," which is responsible for the blowing of the wind on Earth, according to Tech Times. The object was located in the area now called as Sputnik Planum, which is dominated by nitrogen-filled ice, according to a Daily mail report.
The high-resolution image was taken by the New Horizons spacecraft during its July 14 flyby. It was only transmitted in late December along with other photographs of the icy Sputnik Planum region.
Whether the recent image showing the snail-like object is actually a blob of ice, there will always be conspiracy theorists who would argue otherwise. NASA's Curiosity Rover, for instance, has captured images that people say are iguanas, alien cutlery and pyramids, among other things, as HNGN previously reported.
