New Horizons Spacecraft Captures ‘Heart Shaped’ Glacier On Pluto NASA Shared Photo of 9th Planet Watch

NASA often shares amazing pictures captured by its rovers and spacecraft with the world and the agency did something similar on Sunday, May 28. The space agency has shared a photo of Pluto, which has been captured by its New Horizons spacecraft. The picture shows a huge heart-shaped glacier, similar to Pluto. This heart-shaped region is informally known as Tombaugh Regio and is composed of nitrogen and methane.

While sharing this picture of Pluto on Instagram, NASA wrote in the caption, (translated) “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Our New Horizons spacecraft captured this heart-shaped glacier. It is located on Pluto’s surface, which also contains mountains, rocks, valleys, craters and plains, which are thought to be composed of methane and nitrogen ice.”

The caption describing the photo reads, “Pluto’s surface is marked with cracks and craters in shades of brown. A partially visible heart is visible in the lower right of the small world, which Surrounded by black space.”

The New Horizons spacecraft that captured this image was launched in January 2006 and reached Pluto in July 2015. It flew within 7,800 miles of Pluto’s surface, earning it the title of first spacecraft to do so.

According to NASA, Pluto is located in the Kuiper Belt, a donut-shaped region of icy bodies from the early days of our solar system, beyond the orbit of Neptune. The small icy world is an average of about 3.7 billion miles (5.9 billion kilometers) from the Sun, but its oval-shaped orbit could bring Pluto to its closest point compared to Neptune, which expands its tenuous atmosphere as it gets closer to our Sun. Is.