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Tombaugh Regio

Adapted from Wikipedia · Adventurer experience

A colorful image of the planet Pluto showing its icy surface and famous 'heart' region, taken by the New Horizons spacecraft in 2015.

Tombaugh Regio

Tombaugh Regio, often called "Pluto's heart" because of its shape, is the largest bright area on the surface of the dwarf planet Pluto. It sits just north of Pluto's equator, between two darker areas named Belton Regio and Safronov Regio.

The western part of Tombaugh Regio is a vast plain called Sputnik Planitia. This plain is covered with nitrogen ice and other icy materials. The eastern part of the region has higher ground that scientists believe is coated with nitrogen ice.

The whole area is named after Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto.

Description

Tombaugh Regio is a large, bright area on Pluto that is about 1,590 km (990 mi) across. It has two parts that look a bit different. The western part, called Sputnik Planitia, is smoother and lighter in color than the eastern part. Early guesses were that this western part might be a big crater filled with nitrogen snow. Pictures taken on July 15, 2015, showed tall mountains made of water ice and no craters in this area. We now know that the center of Sputnik Planitia has lots of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane ice. The edges of Tombaugh Regio show signs of moving ice, like glaciers.

People had seen Tombaugh Regio as a bright spot for 60 years before the New Horizons spacecraft flew by, but they couldn’t see its shape clearly. During those years, the bright spot seemed to get dimmer. In 2020, scientists discovered that Tombaugh Regio helps control the winds on Pluto and can shape its surface.

Naming and shape

On July 15, 2015, the New Horizons team gave the area a temporary name: "Tombaugh Regio," to honor astronomer Clyde Tombaugh. The name "regio" means "region" in Latin. On September 7, 2017, the International Astronomical Union made the name official.

NASA called the area a "heart" because of its overall shape. Some people also think it looks like the Disney character Pluto, a dog with the same name as the dwarf planet, when viewed from the side. The Walt Disney Company made a short animation showing this.

Images

A colorful image of Charon, Pluto's largest moon, showing its unique surface features as captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.
A colorful map of Pluto showing different surface features as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.
A colorful image of Pluto and its moon Charon, showing different surface features and materials as seen by the New Horizons spacecraft.
Scientists discovered frozen carbon monoxide in Pluto's 'Heart' region, showing how different materials are distributed across the planet's surface.
A colorful view of Pluto's icy plain called Sputnik Planum, captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its historic flyby in 2015.
A colorful map of Pluto's surface showing mountains and craters, taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.
A detailed image of Pluto's icy plains and mountain ranges, showing the complex surface features of the dwarf planet as captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.
A detailed image of Pluto's icy plain called Sputnik Planum, showing fascinating geological features like troughs and segments on the surface of the dwarf planet.
Scientists study how frozen nitrogen flows like glaciers across the surface of Pluto, moving from mountains into a large plain called Sputnik Planum.
A colorful map of the planet Pluto showing some of its major surface features.
A detailed map of Pluto's surface showing dark and bright regions, created from data collected by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.
A colorful educational montage showing the planets in our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth with the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
A colorful view of the dwarf planet Pluto and its large moon Charon, taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its historic flyby in 2015.

Related articles

Clyde Tombaugh
Dwarf planet
Pluto
Solid nitrogen
Nitrogen
Carbon monoxide

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Tombaugh Regio, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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