How Pluto got its ‘heart’

Image caption: Pluto’s “Heart” Feature taken on July 13, 2015. Image credit: NASA /Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute via Flickr.  CC BY 2.0 DEED. Technology.org – April 27, 2024. Source: University of Arizona. Research study: Nature Astronomy.

Ever since the cameras of NASA’s New Horizons mission discovered a large heart-shaped structure on the surface of the dwarf planet Pluto in 2015, this “heart” has puzzled scientists because of its unique shape, geological composition and elevation. Scientists from the University of Bern in Switzerland and the University of Arizona used numerical simulations to investigate the origins of Sputnik Planitia, the western teardrop-shaped part of Pluto’s heart surface feature. […]

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