The heart-shaped structure on Pluto's surface was a mystery for years. Now a group of researchers has revealed the secret behind Pluto's "heart" The heart was formed as a result of a collision with another planetary body with a diameter of almost 700 kilometers.
The findings were published on Monday (April 15) in the journal Nature Astronomy. The researchers focused primarily on the formation of the Sputnik plane - the western, teardrop-shaped part of the "heart's" "Sputnik Plain" covers an area of 1,200 by 2,000 kilometers - about a quarter of the area of Europe - and is three to four kilometers deeper than the surrounding areas. It is believed that the impact was not a direct head-on collision but rather an oblique collision, "Martin Jutzi, co-author of the study, said in a University of University publication Bern. The research team therefore tried to simulate the collision in a simulation.