Uploaded July 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
What would you imagine a moon in the Kuiper belt might look like? Probably not like Pluto's moon Charon! This is Pluto in a Minute.
Before arriving in the Pluto system, a lot of scientists assumed that Pluto's moon Charon would be pretty much an uninteresting cratered body not unlike the planet Mercury. Earth-based observations show there was no atmosphere on the moon, so there was little hope of something interesting like resurfacing going on.
But when New Horizons returned the first ever close-up, detailed images of Charon's surface, it turned out scientists were wrong. Charon is absolutely fascinating and it makes the story a little more interesting.
Charon is heavily cratered like you would expect a body in the Kuiper belt to be. But it also has chasms and craters marking its surface. And they're not small, either. The most pronounced chasm lies in the southern hemisphere, and it is miles longer and deeper than the Grand Canyon in Arizona. There are prominent craters up to 60 miles across and the ejecta pattern of some of these craters is puzzling. You'd think that what's blasted out of the crater would be the same thing as what's inside the crater, but on Charon that doesn't necessarily seem to be the case. There are also areas on Charon's surface that are remarkably smooth, suggesting that something has resurfaced them in recent history.
More data from New Horizons will shed light on Charon's past, but in the meantime, for more about Charon and Pluto be sure to check out the New Horizons websites, join the conversation on line with the hashtag #PlutoFlyby, and of course, come back here everyday for more Pluto in a Minute.
nasa.gov/newhorizons
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu
What would you imagine a moon in the Kuiper belt might look like? Probably not like Pluto's moon Charon! This is Pluto in a Minute.
Before arriving in the Pluto system, a lot of scientists assumed that Pluto's moon Charon would be pretty much an uninteresting cratered body not unlike the planet Mercury. Earth-based observations show there was no atmosphere on the moon, so there was little hope of something interesting like resurfacing going on.
But when New Horizons returned the first ever close-up, detailed images of Charon's surface, it turned out scientists were wrong. Charon is absolutely fascinating and it makes the story a little more interesting.
Charon is heavily cratered like you would expect a body in the Kuiper belt to be. But it also has chasms and craters marking its surface. And they're not small, either. The most pronounced chasm lies in the southern hemisphere, and it is miles longer and deeper than the Grand Canyon in Arizona. There are prominent craters up to 60 miles across and the ejecta pattern of some of these craters is puzzling. You'd think that what's blasted out of the crater would be the same thing as what's inside the crater, but on Charon that doesn't necessarily seem to be the case. There are also areas on Charon's surface that are remarkably smooth, suggesting that something has resurfaced them in recent history.
More data from New Horizons will shed light on Charon's past, but in the meantime, for more about Charon and Pluto be sure to check out the New Horizons websites, join the conversation on line with the hashtag #PlutoFlyby, and of course, come back here everyday for more Pluto in a Minute.
nasa.gov/newhorizons
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu
