Pluto's icy heart


Sputnik Planitium
Sputnik planitium

This 1000 km wide heart-shaped patch is free of craters, so must be very young.  It’s actually a depression, probably a massive impact crater 7km deep, now full of frozen nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide, with glacial flows.
It’s also on the move – the ice is denser than surrounding water ice, and so it is moving towards the equator.
 


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