Scrub or play the convective-cycle slider to watch polygonal nitrogen-ice cells on Pluto's Sputnik Planitia rise at their bright centers and sink into narrow troughs at their edges, then read the real New Horizons-measured cell sizes and overturn timescale.
Sputnik Planitia is a nitrogen-ice glacial plain roughly the size of Texas and Oklahoma combined, tiled with polygonal convection cells 20-40 km wide (McKinnon et al. 2016, Nature). Drag to orbit and scroll or pinch to zoom. For Pluto's flyby trajectory see the New Horizons Pluto Flyby 3D Explorer; for the orbital dance with its largest moon see the Pluto-Charon Double Planet 3D Explorer.
Sputnik Planitia 3D Explorer
This browser explorer shows Pluto's Sputnik Planitia as a patch of polygonal nitrogen-ice convection cells, then lets you scrub through a real, published ~500,000-year overturn cycle to watch each cell's center rise and its edges sink.
Sputnik Planitia is a nitrogen-ice glacial plain on Pluto's surface, about 1,400 by 1,200 km across - larger than Texas and Oklahoma combined. New Horizons imagery in 2015 revealed its surface tiled with polygonal cells 20-40 km wide, averaging about 33 km (McKinnon et al. 2016, "Convection in a volatile nitrogen-ice-rich layer drives Pluto's geological vigour", Nature 534, 82-85). Each cell is a convection cell: warmer nitrogen ice a few kilometers below the surface rises at the cell's bright center, spreads sideways, cools, and sinks back down at the darker, narrow troughs between cells - the same physical process water does in a lava lamp or a pot of simmering soup, just with solid nitrogen ice flowing like a very slow glacier at Pluto's surface temperature of about -230C (about 44K). A full overturn takes roughly 500,000 years, and the surface creeps at a few centimeters per year - fast enough, on a planetary timescale, to keep this region looking geologically young and almost crater-free, unlike most of the rest of Pluto.
- Scrub or play the convective-cycle slider to watch cells rise and sink through one full overturn
- Toggle trough highlighting to see the narrow, darker boundaries between cells light up
- Read the facts panel for the real cell width, overturn timescale, surface temperature, and layer thickness
- Compare with the Pluto flyby and Pluto-Charon siblings
- Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom
- Runs fully in the browser with the vendored three.js engine - no account, no upload
| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| Sputnik Planitia extent | about 1,400 x 1,200 km (larger than Texas and Oklahoma combined) |
| Polygonal cell width | 20-40 km, average about 33 km (McKinnon et al. 2016, Nature) |
| Cell overturn timescale | about 500,000 years |
| Surface temperature | about -230C (about 44K) |
| Convecting nitrogen-ice layer thickness | a few km |
| Surface creep rate | a few cm/year |
For Pluto's 2015 flyby trajectory, open the New Horizons Pluto Flyby 3D Explorer; for the mutual orbit with Pluto's largest moon, open the Pluto-Charon Double Planet 3D Explorer.
Everything renders on your device with WebGL. The 3D engine loads once (about 0.7 MB) and is cached.
This is an educational approximation - the cell layout, the staggered phase per cell, and the height and color changes are simplified and exaggerated for teaching, not a fluid-dynamics simulation of the real convection process. The patch is shown flat because, at this scale, the plain's real curvature would be imperceptible.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Sputnik Planitia?
A nitrogen-ice glacial plain on Pluto's surface, about 1,400 by 1,200 km across - larger than Texas and Oklahoma combined. New Horizons imagery in 2015 revealed its surface tiled with polygonal convection cells.
How wide are the polygonal cells?
20-40 km wide, averaging about 33 km (McKinnon et al. 2016, Nature 534, 82-85).
How long does one convection cycle take?
About 500,000 years for a full overturn - warm ice rises at a cell's center, spreads, cools, and sinks back down at the troughs between cells.
Why does the surface look so young and crater-free?
The nitrogen-ice layer creeps a few centimeters per year and fully overturns roughly every 500,000 years, which resurfaces the plain fast enough - on a planetary timescale - to erase most impact craters.
How cold is it there?
About -230C (about 44K) at the surface.
Is this the same mechanism as the Yarkovsky effect?
No. The Yarkovsky effect is a non-gravitational, sunlight-driven orbital-drift force affecting an asteroid's path through space. Sputnik Planitia's convection is a surface-geology process - solid nitrogen ice slowly flowing and overturning like a very slow glacier - with no orbital effect at all.
How is this different from the New Horizons flyby and Pluto-Charon pages?
The New Horizons Pluto Flyby explorer covers the 2015 mission's approach trajectory and instrument timeline. The Pluto-Charon Double Planet explorer covers the mutual orbit and barycenter. This page is Pluto's own surface geology - neither existing page covers Sputnik Planitia's convection.
Is the on-screen convection real physics?
The cell dimensions, overturn timescale, surface temperature, and creep rate are the real published figures. The cell layout, the staggered phase per cell, and the visual height and color changes are simplified and exaggerated for teaching, not a fluid-dynamics simulation of the real convection process.