OrbitStudio Open the generator →

OrbitStudio / Pluto landmarks / Tartarus Dorsa

Tartarus Dorsa

The bladed terrain east of Pluto's heart: high plateaus of methane ice covered in steep, closely spaced blades. The plateaus print; the blades do not, because the stereo elevation data does not resolve them.

Size850 km across
HeightPlateaus 2 to 5 km above the plains around them, the highest-standing ground on the measured side; blades hundreds of meters high
Coordinates8.5° N, 233.09° E
TypeRidges (dorsa)
Named afterThe deepest, darkest pit of the Underworld in Greek mythology; adopted by the IAU in 2017
Elevation sourceNew Horizons stereo topography, posted at 300 m per pixel

Size and name from the IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature; the plateaus, the blades and their heights from Schenk et al. 2018, the New Horizons team's topographic map of Pluto; the methane ice from Moore et al. 2018. Coordinates are the center point OrbitStudio uses for this destination.

Where is Tartarus Dorsa on Pluto?

Tartarus Dorsa is centered at 8.5° north, 233.09° east, east of Pluto's heart, on the eastern edge of the side New Horizons saw up close. The gazetteer counts Pluto's longitudes eastward from 0° to 360°, and so does OrbitStudio on Pluto; on a map that runs from 180° west to 180° east it would be 126.91° west. The feature reaches past the edge of the ground New Horizons measured, so its entry frames the measured part around its center, about 340 kilometers across. The International Astronomical Union adopted the name in 2017; on Pluto, ridges are named after the Underworld and its places.

What is bladed terrain?

Plateaus of methane ice carved into blades. Moore et al. describe Pluto's bladed terrain as massive deposits of methane ice, found within 30° of the equator and at high elevations, which were later partly eroded into the blades seen today, and they conclude that methane ice can hold up at least several hundred meters of relief there. In the New Horizons team's map the plateaus are 75 to more than 450 kilometers wide and 2 to 5 kilometers high, the highest-standing ground on the measured side, broadly arched and covered with narrow, steep-sided ridges hundreds of meters high, up to about a kilometer.

What does Tartarus Dorsa look like as a 3D print?

Raised plateaus without their blades. Its entry frames about 340 kilometers, so on a model 200 millimeters across the relief in that view comes out at about 4 millimeters at true scale and about 8 millimeters at the 2x Pluto models start at, and the plateaus stand clearly above the plains around them.

The blades themselves are not in the elevation data: the New Horizons team's stereo maps do not resolve the individual ridges, so the tops of the plateaus print smooth. A model of Tartarus Dorsa is a model of where the blades are, not of the blades.

Print Tartarus Dorsa in OrbitStudio Watch how it works · 1:12

What is OrbitStudio?

OrbitStudio turns real elevation data into 3D-printable models. You pick a region of Pluto on a globe or a flat map, choose a jigsaw puzzle or a solid ornament, and get ready-to-print files with terrain and borders already separated and colored. No CAD, no mesh repair. The heights come from New Horizons' stereo topography, posted at 300 meters per pixel.

Trying it is free and needs no account: pick a region, generate it and turn it around in 3D. Downloading the model — STL files and pre-colored 3MF files for Bambu Studio or OrcaSlicer — takes a Plus or Merchant plan, or one credit from a pass. The generator covers the Moon, Mars, Mercury and Venus too.

Other landmarks

Sputnik Planitia Tenzing Montes Wright Mons All Pluto landmarks

The night sky, too

OrbitStudio Sky, the night-sky tool, turns the sky over any place, on any date from 1900 to 2100, into a 3D-printable star map. Its STL is free.