Pluto may have tipped over

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Pluto may have tipped over when Charon tugged at its heart

Sometimes you’ve just got to follow your heart, even if it means moving heaven and Pluto. The dwarf planet’s iconic heart, informally known as Tombaugh Regio, was one of the biggest surprises in the first images beamed back by NASA’s New Horizons probe last July. Now a more detailed look at the spacecraft’s data suggests the heart is so heavy it may actually have tipped Pluto on to its side.

The west side of the heart, Sputnik Planum, is thought to be the remnants of a large crater that has been filled in with nitrogen ice. The plain is unmarked by craters, suggesting it must be less than 10 million years old. Researchers have noticed that the centre of this crater lies very close to the tidal axis – an imaginary line linking Pluto to its largest moon, Charon. The two worlds are tidally locked, meaning they always show the same face to each other as they rotate.

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