Safronov Regio (formerly Krun Macula) is the westernmost of the "

Brass Knuckles Brass knuckles (also referred to as brass knucks, knuckledusters, iron fist and paperweight, among other names) are a melee weapon used primarily in Hand to hand combat, hand-to-hand combat. They are fitted and designed to be worn around the kn ...

", a series of equatorial dark regions on

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...

Observation and naming

Safronov Regio was first observed as the ''

New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institut ...

'' spacecraft approached

and its system of moons. As Pluto rotated, a series of equatorial dark regions were observed and informally nicknamed the ''

'', with Safronov Regio being the westermost of the dark regions. It was initially informally named ''Krun Macula'' after

Krun Krun (; ) or Akrun () is a Mandaean lord of the underworld. According to Mandaean cosmology, he dwells in the lowest depths of creation, supporting the entirety of the physical world. In mythology Krun is the greatest of the five Mandaean lor ...

, the greatest of the five Mandaean lords of the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

. However, the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

(IAU) instead officially approved the name ''Safronov Regio'' in honor of Russian astronomer

Viktor Safronov Viktor Sergeevich Safronov () (born Velikie Luki; 11 October 1917 in Russia – 18 September 1999 in Moscow, Russia) was a Soviet astronomer who put forward the low-mass-nebula model of planet formation, a consistent picture of how the planets for ...

, an early proponent of the planetesimal hypothesis for Solar System formation. The name was approved on 22 September 2023.

Description

Safronov Regio is the third largest equatorial dark region on Pluto, after

Belton Regio Belton Regio (formerly Cthulhu Macula or Cthulhu Regio) is a prominent surface feature of the dwarf planet Pluto. It is an elongated dark region along Pluto's equator, long and one of the darkest features on its surface. After its discovery in ...

and

Harrington Regio Harrington Regio (formerly Balrog Macula) is the largest of the "Brass Knuckles", a series of equatorial dark regions on Pluto. It is the largest dark equatorial feature on Pluto after the Belton Regio, and is located in the middle of the lead ...

. It extends nearly to 180 degrees longitude, the Plutonian longitude opposite Charon. PIA20733-Pluto-KrunMaculaHighlands-20150714

In popular culture

Krun Macula is the name of one of the ship of the character Pluto in ''

Heaven Will Be Mine ''Heaven Will Be Mine'' is a sci-fi romance visual novel developed by American studios Pillow Fight Games and Worst Girl Games for Windows, Mac, Linux, and iOS. The story is set in an alternate history post-Cold War universe wherein humanity has ...

'', a 2018 visual novel.

References

{{Pluto Regions of Pluto