NASA's New Horizons mission already revealed icy mountains on Pluto that may hint on the presence of water along with new surprises from its largest moon, Charon, where scientists are baffled over a bizarre feature dubbed as the "mountain in a moat."

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According to Jeff Moore, who is the lead scientist for New Horizons' Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team, this is apparently a feature that leaves geologists stunned and stumped. This is mainly due to this deep ravine where scientists claim to be deeper and more vast than the Grand Canyon that is observed at the top of the right region of Charon.

The probe captured this image early Tuesday morning before its closest approach on Pluto that reached some 49,000 miles away from the surface of Charon. The image presents the moon's odd feature measuring some 240 miles across, according to Fox News.

These observations were the first batch of data sent by New Horizons during its closest approach which was beamed back Wednesday morning as mission scientists are still deciphering the deluge of information.

These early images were transmitted in a compressed format in order to ensure that high priority data will be sent first, accurately. However, higher resolutions and sharper images will be sent over a period of 16 months as the probe beams back all of its raw and precious data across deep space. This means that more batches of images from the Pluto system will arrive over that period of time.

Scientists are now surprised at the early views from Charon, making the largest moon defy scientific expectations. According to New Horizons' Cathy Olkin, the team originally thought that Charon would possess an ancient terrain pockmarked with craters. However, this image just blew our socks off, she says.

The surface of Charon is not entirely filled with craters, which is not as many as scientists expect them to be, which further suggests that Charon has been geologically active, recently. Olkin adds Pluto did not very well disappoint and now, Charon didn't disappoint either, as per National Geographic.

New Horizons' data reveals that Charon is measured to be 750 miles across which is just slightly more than half the diameter of Pluto, that measures 1,473 miles across. Scientists consider Pluto and Charon the only binary planets in the whole system, meaning, instead of its moon orbiting around Pluto, the two bodies orbit around a center of gravity between them. The next batch of photos are to be released today.

Meanwhile, according to NBC News, newest Pluto data reveals that its icy mountains could signal the presence of water on the dwarf planet, according to Lowell University's Will Grundy also from the New Horizons team, since frozen nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide are present on its surface.

TagsPluto, Charon, NASA New Horizons, image Pluto moon Charon, water on Pluto