Pluto was considered the ninth planet in the solar system
The NASA space agency regularly takes amazing pictures of our universe, leaving space lovers amazed. On Sunday, NASA shared a stunning photo on Instagram taken by the New Horizons spacecraft that shows a heart-shaped glacier on the surface of Pluto. The heart-shaped area is informally known as Tombaugh Regio and is composed of nitrogen and methane.
The photo was captioned, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Our New Horizons spacecraft captured this heart-shaped glacier. It is located on the surface of Pluto, which also includes mountains, cliffs, valleys, craters, and plains, which are thought to be made of methane and nitrogen ices.
See the picture here:
He described the image as: “The surface of Pluto is characterized by cracks and craters in brown tones. The partially visible heart appears in the lower right of the small world surrounded by black space.
New Horizons was launched in January 2006 and reached Pluto in July 2015, flying 7,800 miles from its surface and becoming the first probe to fly by Pluto and its moons. The distant spacecraft also visited a distant Kuiper belt object Ultima Thule (2014 MU69) in January 2019.
Instagram users liked the photo and shared a variety of comments. One user wrote, “What a wonderful capture, courtesy of the New Horizons spacecraft.” Another commented, “For me Pluto will always be a planet.”
A third said: Why isn’t Pluto a plane? He literally has a heart! A fourth added: “Staying away does not mean you are not part of the family. »
Pluto was once considered the ninth planet in the solar system, however, in 2006 it was downgraded and reclassified as a dwarf planet. International Astronomical Union The IAU downgraded Pluto to a dwarf planet because it did not meet the three criteria the IAU uses to define a full-size planet.
Pluto is 1,400 miles (2,250 km) across, about half the width of the United States or two-thirds the width of the Moon. With an average temperature of -387 F (-232 C) – Pluto’s surface is covered in ice made of water, methane, and nitrogen and is believed to have a rocky core and possibly a deep ocean.
