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LiveScience
LiveScience
Stephanie Pappas

RARE PHOTOS: Pluto s huge white heart has a surprisingly violent origin new study suggests | Rare Historical Photos

A heart-shaped 'splat' on Pluto's surface has captivated scientists for nearly a decade. New simulations finally reveal where it may have come from.

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.

Now, researchers believe they've uncovered the origin of this cosmic Valentine. The heart, they report today (April 15) in the journal Nature Astronomy, was formed in a slow-motion, glancing collision with an icy rock wider than Kansas is long.

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