Astronomers investigating data and images beamed back by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft have found that dwarf planet Pluto once have had flowing lakes of nitrogen. The team concluded the new findings after studying details of body of nitrogen on the dwarf planet seen in a new picture.

New Horizons team announced that Pluto may once have harbored lakes of nitrogen, not water, billions of years ago when its surface conditions were different from today. The distant world’s thicker atmosphere raised the temperature and created an environment where liquid nitrogen flowed on the surface, the team added.

“In addition to this possible former lake, we also see evidence of channels that may also have carried liquids in Pluto’s past”, explained New Horizons mission investigator and Southwest Research Institute scientist Alan Stern.

NASA launched the New Horizons probe in 2006 with an aim to study Pluto and a number of other space objects in the Kuiper Belt. Last year in July, the spacecraft came very close to the Pluto’s surface to collect data and capture high quality images. Since then, it has been beaming back data on the icy body to New Horizons team on earth.

In last few months, the probe sent high quality images showing Pluto’s features in details. The distant world’s mountains coated in methane snow and mysterious landscapes were clearly visible the photos.

According to the New Horizons team, the spacecraft has been surprising astronomers with the data is collected during the fly. Before this, it provided detailed information on the Pluto’s features, but now, the presence of a frozen lake of nitrogen has baffled everyone, the team added. The new data also suggested that the dwarf planet may have a lake in future when conditions will be favorable.