Pluto's heart shows a young, churned nitrogen glacier erasing its history

1 min read
Source: Space Daily
Pluto's heart shows a young, churned nitrogen glacier erasing its history
Photo: Space Daily
TL;DR

Sputnik Planitia, the bright nitrogen-ice plain at Pluto's heart, has no confirmed impact craters, implying a convecting, glacier-like surface that renews itself on timescales of about 500,000 years; while older, cratered terrain exists elsewhere on Pluto, this region's surface is continually renewed, making parts of it effectively younger than humans, though crater counts alone don’t give a precise age.

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