New Horizons has put Pluto in
its rear-view mirror, but NASA still has many gigabytes of data to
download from the probe. As the images and readings trickle back, we’re
gaining a greater understanding of the former ninth planet,
but also of its moons. The latest image to be released by NASA shows
Pluto’s largest moon Charon, and it’s much more lumpy and uneven than
you probably expected.
During its flyby of the Pluto system, New Horizons got within 17,000 miles (27,000km) of Charon. This object is about 600 miles in diameter and is massive enough that it actually forms a binary system with Pluto — they both orbit around a single barycenter near Pluto. The images we had of Pluto before the New Horizons mission were not great, but Charon was even more mysterious. The newly released photo reveals a plethora of fascinating geological features, though.
Charon’s surface turns out to be very irregular with mountains, craters, and a giant 1000 mile-long canyon stretching across the middle. It’s four times longer than the grand canyon, and that’s just the part of it we can see. New Horizons was just doing a flyby of the Pluto system, so it didn’t get a look at the other side of the moon. NASA researchers have entertained the possibility that the network of canyons stretches all the way around the planet.
The plains south of the canyons are remarkably smooth compared to the craggy, pockmarked surface to the north. Scientists say this indicates significant resurfacing of Charon has occurred in the not-too-distant past. So like Pluto, it might be more geologically active than we thought. The likelihood of seeing so much geological activity on a small moon at the edge of the solar system was seen as very unlikely.
The reason for this radical remodeling of the surface could be due to volcanic activity, but NASA seems more interested in the possibility of cryovolcanism. An internal water ocean may have frozen in the past and resulted in changes in volume and mass distribution could have led to the surface cracking open and the formation of mountainous features.
We might learn more about the nature of Charon in the coming months. There is even higher-resolution Charon data still sitting in New Horizons, but it’s going to take months to get all that data back to Earth. The data link between NASA and the probe only runs at 1-2Kbps. In the meantime, NASA is looking at where to send New Horizons next. It has enough fuel left to take a closer look at another Kuiper Belt object. Maybe we’ll find more evidence out there to help unravel the mysteries of Charon.
During its flyby of the Pluto system, New Horizons got within 17,000 miles (27,000km) of Charon. This object is about 600 miles in diameter and is massive enough that it actually forms a binary system with Pluto — they both orbit around a single barycenter near Pluto. The images we had of Pluto before the New Horizons mission were not great, but Charon was even more mysterious. The newly released photo reveals a plethora of fascinating geological features, though.
Charon’s surface turns out to be very irregular with mountains, craters, and a giant 1000 mile-long canyon stretching across the middle. It’s four times longer than the grand canyon, and that’s just the part of it we can see. New Horizons was just doing a flyby of the Pluto system, so it didn’t get a look at the other side of the moon. NASA researchers have entertained the possibility that the network of canyons stretches all the way around the planet.
The plains south of the canyons are remarkably smooth compared to the craggy, pockmarked surface to the north. Scientists say this indicates significant resurfacing of Charon has occurred in the not-too-distant past. So like Pluto, it might be more geologically active than we thought. The likelihood of seeing so much geological activity on a small moon at the edge of the solar system was seen as very unlikely.
The reason for this radical remodeling of the surface could be due to volcanic activity, but NASA seems more interested in the possibility of cryovolcanism. An internal water ocean may have frozen in the past and resulted in changes in volume and mass distribution could have led to the surface cracking open and the formation of mountainous features.
We might learn more about the nature of Charon in the coming months. There is even higher-resolution Charon data still sitting in New Horizons, but it’s going to take months to get all that data back to Earth. The data link between NASA and the probe only runs at 1-2Kbps. In the meantime, NASA is looking at where to send New Horizons next. It has enough fuel left to take a closer look at another Kuiper Belt object. Maybe we’ll find more evidence out there to help unravel the mysteries of Charon.
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