Pluto is largely known for its iconic heart, the western half of which is known as Sputnik Planum. Now, though, scientists have learned a bit more about this location in the tiny world and have found that it may have had a larger influence than anyone expected.
The heart-shaped spot on Pluto was actually formed by a massive impact. I's likely that an asteroid smashed into Pluto, forming the unique features that we see today. In fact, Sputnik Planum is thought to be a large crater that was then filled in with nitrogen ice.
The area of Sputnik Planum also lines up particularly well with Pluto's largest moon, Charon. The two are tidally locked and always face each other with the same side as they rotate around each other. Now, scientists have taken a closer look at this gravitational pull and why it lines up so well with what is largely considered one of the most unusual features to be found on Pluto.
Two teams of researchers offered an explanation as to why we see Charon and Pluto behaving as they are. Imagine if Sputnik Planum were denser than Pluto on average. Gravitationally speaking, this mean that the tug on the area from Charon would be greater than other areas of the world. In fact, it's possible that this tug could have "tilted" Pluto over time.
Knowing that Sputnik Planum was created by an asteroid, this means that Pluto didn't always have the same tilt as it does today. It's likely that the "heart" of Pluto could be found more northward in the past before the crater was filled with ice and became much heavier.
With that said, there are researchers with slightly different explanations as to why Sputnik Planum is so heavy. It's possible that it's a different version of features seen on our own moon, called mascons. Mascons are mass concentrations and are craters with unusual density. They were also created by impacts, though these impacts caused the moon's mantle to rise up and create a "heavier" location.
The findings, which reveal a bit more about this unusual feature, were presented at the recent Lunar and Planetary Science conference in Texas.
