Sputnik Planitia Quiz: Pluto's Heart of Nitrogen Ice

This Sputnik Planitia quiz lands on the heart-shaped plain photographed by New Horizons. Play 10 interactive questions on the western lobe of Tombaugh Regio, a basin about 1,000 km across filled with nitrogen ice, slow convection cells, a surface without craters, floating water-ice hills, mountains of water ice, a possible hidden ocean and the 2015 flyby.

Start Sputnik Planitia Quiz

🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Where
On which world is Sputnik Planitia?
Heart
What is the heart-shaped region called?
Ice
What kind of ice fills Sputnik Planitia?
Size
About how wide is the basin?
Cells
What patterns cover its surface?
Young
What does the lack of craters suggest?
Hills
What floats on the nitrogen ice?
Mountains
What are nearby mountains made of?
Ocean
What might lie beneath the region?
Probe
Which spacecraft photographed it in 2015?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: On which world is Sputnik Planitia?
Answer: Pluto
It is part of the heart.
Q2: What is the heart-shaped region called?
Answer: Tombaugh Regio
It honors Pluto's discoverer.
Q3: What kind of ice fills Sputnik Planitia?
Answer: Nitrogen ice
It behaves like a slow glacier.
Q4: About how wide is the basin?
Answer: Around 1,000 km
It is huge for a small world.
Q5: What patterns cover its surface?
Answer: Polygonal convection cells
Warmer ice rises in the centers.
Q6: What does the lack of craters suggest?
Answer: The surface is young
Churning ice erases them.
Q7: What floats on the nitrogen ice?
Answer: Blocks and hills of water ice
Water ice is less dense here.
Q8: What are nearby mountains made of?
Answer: Water ice
Water ice is rock-hard at Pluto's cold.
Q9: What might lie beneath the region?
Answer: A hidden ocean
It is a possibility scientists discuss.
Q10: Which spacecraft photographed it in 2015?
Answer: New Horizons
It flew past Pluto in July.

The Frozen Heart of Pluto

When New Horizons flew past Pluto in July 2015, it revealed a bright heart-shaped region named Tombaugh Regio, after Pluto's discoverer. Its western lobe, Sputnik Planitia, is a basin about 1,000 km across filled with nitrogen ice.

The nitrogen ice slowly churns. Warmer ice rises in the centers of polygonal cells and sinks at their edges, like a lava lamp in slow motion, erasing craters and keeping the surface young. Blocks and hills of water ice, less dense than the nitrogen, float and drift, while nearby mountains are made of water ice, rock-hard in Pluto's cold.

Scientists think the basin may sit above a hidden ocean, and its heavy ice may have tilted Pluto over time. Sputnik Planitia, named after the first artificial satellite, showed that even distant dwarf planets can be geologically active.

What This Quiz Teaches

Space fans will enjoy these questions.

Where it is
What fills it
How the ice moves
What floats on it
What lies beneath

Did You Know?

Pluto has a thin nitrogen atmosphere.
Haze layers glow blue.
Charon is Pluto's largest moon.
Clyde Tombaugh found Pluto in 1930.
Some ashes of Tombaugh flew on New Horizons.