A new study shows that a weird, snakeskin -looking terrain found on Pluto. This is actually a counterpart on Earth.

According to SPACE, These "scales" images was captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its July 2015 flyby, are ice ridges 1,650 feet (500 meters) or so tall. They are quite similar to Earth's "penitentes", which rise just a few meters above the ground in cold, mountainous regions of Earth.

The team of York University used model simulations for the model of penitents -like features on the dwarf planet. They have tweaked factors such as temperature wind speed to reflect the harsh surface conditions on Pluto.

The research report suggests that, although these ice ridges are currently known to exist only on Earth and Pluto. They may also be on other solar system bodies with the right conditions.

However, the feature of Pluto and Earth are different in size and composition. Pluto's ridges are also made up mostly of methane and nitrogen ices, while Earth's are composed of snow of water ice. Pluto's environment is much colder much thinner than those of Earth.

As per the report from astronomers, the recent identified 'penitentes' on Pluto are not so surprising. Earlier, exotic icy mountains, a blue sky, and a surface have been found from the dwarf planet. This is hinted the presence of an underground ocean, reported by York University.

New Horizons got within 7,800 miles (12,550 kilometers) of Pluto on July 14. Data download from New Horizons is already complete but the analysis is still ongoing. The spacecraft is on its way to a rendezvous with Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69 this 2019.

The new study report is published in the journal Nature. The research indicates that Pluto's penitentes probably formed within the past few tens of millions of years.

Astronomers hope Pluto is being capable of the great ball of ice, could also be capable of hosting life.