WASHINGTON — According to a study in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, Pluto's frozen heart of nitrogen ice may be the main driver of the dwarf planet's winds. <br /><br />Pluto's heart shaped Tombaugh Regio is a vast structure made of nitrogen ice and its left lobe Sputnik Planitia contains 1,000 km of ice sheet within its 5 km basin.<br /><br />During the day, a thin layer of the frozen nitrogen evaporates in relative heat; at night, the gas condenses and returns to icy form.<br /><br />The sequence pumps nitrogen wind through Pluto's atmosphere like rhythmic heartbeats.<br /><br />As nitrogen in Tombaugh Regio vaporizes in the north and freeze into ice in the south, the process triggers a westerly wind.<br /><br />Citing the study's authors, Phys.org says this behavior is unique in the entire solar system with perhaps the exception of Neptune's moon Triton.<br /><br />The study's other discovery is that Sputnik Planitia's high cliffs trap winds within the basin before releasing the strengthened currents to the west.<br /><br />The atmospheric movement is similar to certain wind patterns on Earth, such as the Kuroshio in Eastern Asia.
