Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior.
When NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto in 2015, it returned images with a sweet surprise: a heart-shaped formation dominating the surface of the dwarf planet.
"We are used to thinking of planetary collisions as incredibly intense events where you can ignore the details except for things like energy, momentum and density," Asphaug said in a statement. But in the distant solar system, velocities are so much slower, and solid ice is strong, so you have to be much more precise in your calculations. That's where the fun starts.
By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.The icy rock that hit Pluto was probably around 454 miles in diameter, the study authors said. Because of Pluto's icy core, the impact did not melt and liquefy portions of the planet as might happen in an impact in warmer climes, allowing the impacting body to sink into the planet's core.
The simulations further suggest that Pluto does not hold a subsurface ocean under its icy outer layers, the researchers reported. Because Pluto's heart has a lower mass than the rest of the dwarf planet's surface, it should have gradually migrated toward the pole as Pluto rotated over millennia. But the formation is near the planet's equator — an odd position researchers had previously theorized might be due to the dynamics of a huge body of subsurface liquid water.
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