page_title: Tombaugh Regio
hierarchical_section_title: Tombaugh Regio
caption_attribution_description: English: PIA19945: Sputnik Planum in Detail http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19945 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/figures/PIA19944_fig1.jpg http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-wows-in-spectacular-new-backlit-panorama Sputnik Planum is the informal name of the smooth, light-bulb shaped region on the left of this composite of several New Horizons images of Pluto. The brilliantly white upland region to the right may be coated by nitrogen ice that has been transported through the atmosphere from the surface of Sputnik Planum, and deposited on these uplands. The box shows the location of the glacier detail images at PIA19944 and PIA19943. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, designed, built, and operates the New Horizons spacecraft, and manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Southwest Research Institute, based in San Antonio, leads the science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
context_page_description: Tombaugh Regio is the largest bright surface feature of the dwarf planet Pluto. It is just north of the equator, to the northeast of Cthulhu Macula and to the northwest of Krun Macula, which are both dark features. Its western lobe, a 1000 km-wide plain of nitrogen and other ices lying within a basin, is named Sputnik Planitia. The eastern lobe consists of high-albedo uplands thought to be coated by nitrogen transported through the atmosphere from Sputnik Planitia, and then deposited as ice. Some of this nitrogen ice then returns to Sputnik Planitia via glacial flow. Named after Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto, it is nicknamed the "heart" after its shape.
context_section_description: Tombaugh Regio (/ˈtɒmbaʊ ˈrɛdʒioʊ/) is the largest bright surface feature of the dwarf planet Pluto. It is just north of the equator, to the northeast of Cthulhu Macula and to the northwest of Krun Macula, which are both dark features. Its western lobe, a 1000 km-wide plain of nitrogen and other ices lying within a basin, is named Sputnik Planitia. The eastern lobe consists of high-albedo uplands thought to be coated by nitrogen transported through the atmosphere from Sputnik Planitia, and then deposited as ice. Some of this nitrogen ice then returns to Sputnik Planitia via glacial flow. Named after Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto, it is nicknamed the "heart" after its shape.
caption: A detailed view of Tombaugh Regio; a constructed mosaic of monochrome images by New Horizons.
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