Discovered by the New Horizons spacecraft in 2015, it is located southwest of Sputnik Planitia within Hyecho Palus, adjacent to the Tenzing Montes and Belton Regio.

[3]: 422, 425 [a] Wright Mons's edifice is roughly annular in shape, at approximately 150 kilometers (93 mi) in diameter,[2] and is likely composed primarily of water ice.

[5] Wright Mons's relatively shallow flanks are largely dominated by a dense network of hummocks, or hills, each roughly 10 to 15 kilometers (6.2 to 9.3 mi) in diameter and 200 to 600 meters (656 to 1,970 ft) high.

[3]: 425 [6] The approximately conical central depression has a roughly flat floor which reaches nearly, if not as low as the plains surrounding Wright Mons.

[4][8] Soon after Wright Mons's discovery, its young surface and resemblance to terrestrial volcanoes prompted speculation that it could be a cryovolcanic structure,[9][10] formed from erupted volatile material termed cryolava.

[4] Wright Mons has also been compared to terrestrial mud volcanoes, with a hypothesis proposing that subsurface mud-like slurry could be forced up due to density differences in seasonally-deposited layers on Pluto's surface.

[4] The sinuous radial trenches in Wright Mons's central depression appear to follow the steepest topographical gradient, and as such have been noted as potential cryolava flow channels, but this identification remains uncertain.