Jeff Moore17 July 2015
Images reveal a vast craterless plain in Pluto's heart-shaped region, indicating surprisingly young terrain.
United States of America · Science / Astronomy. Chronological records rendered directly from the World History Database.
Images reveal a vast craterless plain in Pluto's heart-shaped region, indicating surprisingly young terrain.
The newly revealed icy plain in Pluto's heart is informally named Sputnik Planum, later standardized as Sputnik Planitia.
Models using New Horizons data show that Sputnik Planitia's nitrogen ice is renewed by slow convection, producing polygonal surface cells.
Research proposes that Pluto's nitrogen-rich Sputnik Planitia could have formed early and migrated as the dwarf planet's rotation evolved.
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