The large heart-shaped region may have formed after a massive but slow-moving object collided with Pluto at a strange angle.
Pluto's characteristic heart-shaped feature may have been formed by an ancient impact, scientists have discovered.This enormous region of the dwarf planet's surface—first seen in detail by the New Horizons flyby in 2015—is named Tombaugh Regio and has mystified astronomers for years due to its strange shape and geological composition.
The researchers used the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulation software to digitally simulate collisions with the dwarf planet, adjusting variables like the composition of both Pluto and the impacting body, as well as the impactor's speed and angle. These simulations validated the researchers' theory regarding the slanted impact angle and helped them identify the likely composition of the impacting object.
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