Facts about Sputnik Planitia

1. 08

   The heart-shaped region of Pluto of which Sputnik Planitia forms the left lobe was informally named Tombaugh Regio after Pluto's discoverer, Clyde Tombaugh.

   Sputnik PlanitiaJun 8shareplanetarygeologyexploration
2. 07

   Approximately 386,000 square kilometers of Sputnik Planitia span across Pluto's surface, making it comparable in size to Japan or the state of California.

   Sputnik PlanitiaMay 14sharemeasurementgeographyscale
3. 06

   Sputnik Planitia's western lobe contains water ice bedrock that was mapped at temperatures around minus 380 degrees Fahrenheit by New Horizons during its 2015 flyby.

   Sputnik PlanitiaMay 14sharetemperaturecompositionmeasurement
4. 05

   Pluto's Sputnik Planitia displays a surface age of less than 180 million years, making it among the youngest geological features in the outer solar system.

   Sputnik PlanitiaMay 14sharegeologyplutoage
5. 04

   Methane ice deposits detected across Sputnik Planitia by New Horizons comprise a distinct compositional layer beneath the nitrogen-dominated surface of this Plutonian feature.

   Sputnik PlanitiaMay 14sharechemistrycompositionpluto
6. 03

   Convection cells in Sputnik Planitia's nitrogen ice create polygonal features roughly 16 to 40 kilometers across, suggesting active thermal circulation beneath Pluto's surface.

   Sputnik PlanitiaMay 14sharegeologythermalpluto
7. 02

   Cryovolcanic water ice mountains rise up to 3.5 kilometers above Sputnik Planitia's surface, surrounding the nitrogen-ice plain on Pluto.

   Sputnik PlanitiaMay 14sharegeologymeasurementcryovolcanism
8. 01

   Nitrogen ice covers approximately 40 percent of Sputnik Planitia on Pluto, discovered by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft in 2015.

   Sputnik PlanitiaMay 13shareastronomymeasurementice