News in Brief Planetary Science

Impact from a space rock may have helped shape Pluto’s heart

heart-shaped structure on Pluto

The left side of Pluto’s heart (pictured) might be the relic of an ancient impact crater, new analysis suggests.

NASA, JHUAPL, SWRI

By Christopher Crockett

- More than 2 years ago

OXON HILL, Md. — Pluto’s got a roughly 4-billion-year-old case of heartbreak. The left ventricle of the dwarf planet’s famous heart-shaped feature might owe its existence to a run-in with a big space rock, planetary scientist Paul Schenk reported November 10 at the 47th meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences.