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Space
Space
Science
Keith Cooper

Astronomers discover landslides on Pluto large enough to bury entire cities on Earth

An icy, yellow planet and an inset image showing a crater on it.

The aftermath of landslides have been found in images of Pluto's surface taken when the New Horizons mission flew past the dwarf planet in 2015. The landslides are evidence that the icy world is still active, albeit on geological timescales.

A team led by geologist Marco Emanuele Discenza pored over images taken by New Horizons' LORRI (Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager) instrument, which was capable of detecting surface features as small as 984 feet (300 meters). They found convincing evidence for six landslides in total that have taken place down the inner walls of three craters on the western edge of Sputnik Planitia, the heart-shaped feature that characterizes Pluto's appearance.

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