Solar System · the heart at the edge
Pluto
Small, far away, and much loved.
Pluto is a dwarf planet with a giant heart-shaped plain of nitrogen ice and mountains made of water ice. It is the most distant place in the Solar System where people choose to live.
Heartfield is a tiny, cosy outpost famous for warm windows, long silences and the best view of Charon, Pluto's huge moon, hanging in the sky.
Heartfield is home to just a few hundred people. They chose the quiet, the cold and the view, and they defend all three fiercely.
Atmosphere
Pale ice, a distant pin-prick Sun, Charon looming huge overhead.
Local quirk
Calling Pluto 'not a planet' gets you uninvited from dinner.
Regions · proposed names, not locked canon
The Heart Plain
Sputnik Planitia, a smooth heart-shaped glacier of slowly churning nitrogen ice.
Heartfield
A small outpost of scientists, artists and people who like their quiet.
Ice Mountains
Peaks of water ice as hard as rock.
Hazards
- ▲Deep coldAround minus 230 degrees Celsius.
- ▲Distance from helpYears from the inner planets at slow speeds.
- ▲Slow ice flowsThe Heart Plain moves, very slowly but constantly.
Visitor tips
- ✦Wrap up warm, then warmer.
- ✦Bring a good story.
- ✦Do not call it a dwarf planet.
Local life
- ●Outpost residents
- ●Retired explorers
A day on Pluto
The Sun here is only a bright star. Days are dim, long and peaceful.
Residents paint, study the ice and host dinners that last all night.
Locals & customs
Elder Juno Saltrey
Oldest resident of Heartfield. Was there for the last downgrade attempt.
Nib
A young ice scientist who measures the Heart Plain's slow churning every single day.
- ◆Every visitor brings a story to tell at dinner.
- ◆The word 'dwarf' is not used at the table.
Legends & history
The Heart That Beats
The ice of the Heart Plain churns slowly in great cells.
Locals say that if you lie very still on the ice, you can feel it beat.
Crew log
“Small planet, big attitude. I respect that.”
“Nice heart.”
Story seed · in development
Planet Enough
A survey ship arrives to officially downgrade Pluto again. The residents of Heartfield have had quite enough.
The survey ship is a cover. Someone wants Pluto's Kuiper watchers shut down, so no one sees what's heading inward.
Earthward stakes
Pluto's Kuiper watchers spot icy bodies drifting inward long before they reach Earth.
Onobo packs
Science inspiration
Pluto is real: a dwarf planet with a heart-shaped nitrogen-ice plain and water-ice mountains. Heartfield is fiction.
NASA: Pluto