A huge heart-shaped feature on the surface of Pluto has intrigued astronomers since NASAβs New Horizons spacecraft captured it in a 2015 image. Now, researchers think they have solved the mystery of how the distinctive heart came to be β and it could reveal new clues about the dwarf planetβs origins.
The feature is called Tombaugh Regio in honour of astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930. But the heart is not all one element, scientists say. And for decades, details on Tombaugh Regioβs elevation, geological composition and distinct shape, as well as its highly reflective surface that is a brighter white than the rest of Pluto, have defied explanation.
A deep basin called Sputnik Planitia, which makes up the βleft lobeβ of the heart, is home to much of Plutoβs nitrogen ice.
The basin covers an area spanning 745 miles by 1,242 miles (1,200 kilometres by 2,000 kilometres), equivalent to about one-quarter of the United States, but itβs also 1.9 to 2.5 miles (3 to 4 kilometres) lower in elevation than the majority of the planetβs surface. Meanwhile, the right side of the heart also has a layer of nitrogen ice, but itβs much thinner.
Through new research on Sputnik Planitia, an international team of scientists has determined that a cataclysmic event created the heart. After an analysis involving numerical simulations, the researchers concluded a planetary body about 435 miles (700 kilometres) in diameter, or roughly twice the size of Switzerland from east to west, likely collided with Pluto early in the dwarf planetβs history.
The findings are part of a study about Pluto and its internal structure published Monday in the journal .
Previously, the team studied unusual features across the solar system, such as those on the far side of the moon, that were likely created by collisions during the early, chaotic days of the systemβs formation.
The researchers created the numerical simulations using smoothed particle hydrodynamics software, considered the basis for a wide range of planetary collision studies, to model different scenarios for potential impacts, velocities, angles and compositions of the theorized planetary bodyβs collision with Pluto.
The results showed that the planetary body likely crashed into Pluto at a slanted angle, rather than head-on.
βPlutoβs core is so cold that the (rocky body that collided with the dwarf planet) remained very hard and did not melt despite the heat of the impact, and thanks to the angle of impact and the low velocity, the core of the impactor did not sink into Plutoβs core, but remained intact as a splat on it,β said lead study author Dr. Harry Ballantyne, research associate at the University of Bern in Switzerland, in a statement.
But what happened to the planetary body after it smacked into Pluto?
βSomewhere beneath Sputnik is the remnant core of another massive body, that Pluto never quite digested,β said study coauthor Erik Asphaug, professor at the University of Arizonaβs Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, in a statement.
The teardrop shape of Sputnik Planitia is a result of the frigidity of Plutoβs core, as well as the relatively low velocity of the impact itself, the team found. Other types of faster and more direct impacts would have created a more symmetrical shape.
βWe are used to thinking of planetary collisions as incredibly intense events where you can ignore the details except for things like energy, momentum and density. But in the distant Solar System, velocities are so much slower, and solid ice is strong, so you have to be much more precise in your calculations,β Asphaug said. βThatβs where the fun starts.β
The New Horizons spacecraft took an image of Pluto's heart on July 14, 2015. (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/NASA via CNN Newsource)
While studying the heart feature, the team also focused on the internal structure of Pluto. An impact early in Plutoβs history would have created a mass deficit, causing Sputnik Planitia to slowly migrate toward the dwarf planetβs north pole over time while the planet was still forming. This is due to the fact that the basin is less massive than its surroundings, according to the laws of physics, the researchers explained in the study.
However, Sputnik Planitia is near the dwarf planetβs equator.
Previous research has suggested that Pluto could have a subsurface ocean, and if so, the icy crust over the subsurface ocean would be thinner in the Sputnik Planitia region, creating a dense bulge of liquid water and causing a migration of mass toward the equator, the study authors said.
But the new study offers a different explanation for the featureβs location.
βIn our simulations, all of Plutoβs primordial mantle is excavated by the impact, and as the impactorβs core material splats onto Plutoβs core, it creates a local mass excess that can explain the migration toward the equator without a subsurface ocean, or at most a very thin one,β said study coauthor Dr. Martin Jutzi, senior researcher of space research and planetary sciences at the University of Bernβs Physics Institute.
Kelsi Singer, a principal scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado and co-deputy principal investigator on NASAβs New Horizons Mission, who was not involved with the study, said the authors did a thorough job of exploring the modeling and developing their hypotheses, though she would have liked to have seen βa closer tie to the geologic evidence.β
βFor example, the authors suggest the southern portion of Sputnik Planitia is very deep, but much of the geologic evidence has been interpreted to point to the south being shallower than the north,β Singer said.
The researchers believe that the new theory regarding Plutoβs heart could shed more light on how the mysterious dwarf planet formed. Plutoβs origins have remained murky given that it exists on the edge of the solar system and has only been studied up close by the New Horizons mission.
βPluto is a vast wonderland of unique and fascinating geology, so more creative hypotheses for explaining that geology are always helpful,β Singer said. βWhat would help to distinguish between different hypotheses is more information about the subsurface of Pluto. We can only get that by sending spacecraft mission to orbit Pluto, potentially with a radar that can peer through the ice.β
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