Data from New Horizons mission suggest a water-ice ocean lies beneath Pluto's heart-shaped basin
Wednesday, November 16, 2016 - 13:21
in Astronomy & Space
Beneath Pluto's "heart" lies a cold, slushy ocean of water ice, according to data from NASA's New Horizons mission. In a paper published today in the journal Nature, the New Horizons team, including researchers from MIT, reports that the dwarf planet's most prominent surface feature—a heart-shaped region named Tombaugh Regio—may harbor a bulging, viscous, liquid ocean just below its surface.