” Related: Destination Pluto: NASAs New Horizons objective in picturesThe surface area of Plutos icy Sputnik Planum– seen here in a picture recorded by NASAs New Horizons spacecraft during its close flyby of the dwarf planet on July 14, 2015– is covered with churning ice “cells” that are geologically young and turning over due to convection. (Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) Sputnik Planitia is the most popular geological feature on Pluto, as it is a big oval-shaped zone straddling the equator of Pluto. The new study consisted of numerical simulations, revealing that as the nitrogen at Pluto cools throughout sublimation in Sputnik Planitia, it will produce polygons constant with the size and topographical amplitude seen in New Horizons images.
