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Pluto’s moon Charon is roughly spherical with craters and the reddish north polar region known as Mordor Macula.

Detailed View of Charon, Moon of Pluto

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Caption: Charon is the largest natural moon of the dwarf planet Pluto. This detailed image was taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft in 2015 during its historic mission through the outer Solar System. Charon’s surface shows a fascinating mix of light and dark regions, including vast canyons, broad plains, and impact crater. With a diameter of about 1,200 kilometers, Charon is more than half the diameter of Pluto, making it unusually large compared to its parent body. Charon's mass is roughly 12% of that of Pluto. Because Pluto and Charon are so close in mass, the center of mass of the system (the point both Pluto and Charon orbit) is not within Pluto but between Pluto and Charon. This is in contrast to systems like the Earth and its Moon where the center of mass lies within the larger body, the Earth in this case. Scientists think the Pluto-Charon system may have formed by a collision of two objects that then separated and began to orbit each other. By studying Charon and the smaller moons that circle Pluto, astronomers gain insight into how moons form and how distant icy bodies evolve over billions of years.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker
Credit Link

Termes del glossari: Moons , Pluto

License: Public Domain Public Domain icons

Arxiu ( image 2.88 MB)


illustration image for  Children's Planetary Maps: Pluto & Charon

Children's Planetary Maps: Pluto & Charon

astroEDU educational activity (links to astroEDU website)
Description: Learn about our furthest neighbors

Termes del glossari: Astrobiology , Planetary Science , Pluto
Tags: Charon , Maps , Planetary cartography , Spatial thinking
Age Ranges: 6-8 , 8-10 , 10-12 , 12-14
Education Level: Middle School , Primary , Secondary
Areas of Learning: Structured-inquiry learning
Costs: Low Cost
Duration: 2 hours
Group Size: Group
Skills: Analysing and interpreting data , Asking questions , Communicating information , Constructing explanations , Developing and using models , Engaging in argument from evidence , Planning and carrying out investigations
Authors: Henrik Hargitai, Mátyás Gede

License: Creative Commons Reconeixement 4.0 Internacional (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Reconeixement 4.0 Internacional (CC BY 4.0) icons


Image of Pluto in enhanced colour to bring out differences in surface composition. They include craters, ridges and plains.

Pluto

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Caption: NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced colour view of the dwarf planet Pluto on in July 2015. The image combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC). Pluto’s surface appears enhanced in this view to a rainbow of pale blues, yellows, oranges, and deep reds. The image resolves details and colours on scales as small as 1.3 kilometers.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Credit Link

Termes del glossari: Dwarf Planet , Kuiper Belt , Pluto , Trans-Neptunian Object
Categories: Solar System

License: Public Domain Public Domain icons

Arxiu ( image 2.55 MB)


The asteroid Ceres, roughly spherical with a grey surface, many craters, some of which reveal white subsurface water ice.

Ceres

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Caption: True-colour image of the asteroid Ceres acquired by the spaceprobe Dawn in May 2015, at a distance of 13641 km. The prominent, bright crater at right is Haulani. The smaller bright spot to its left is exposed on the floor of Oxo. Ejecta from these impacts appears to have exposed bright material, probably water ice.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA / Justin Cowart

Termes del glossari: Asteroid Belt , Crater , Dwarf Planet , Impact Craters
Categories: Solar System

License: Creative Commons Reconeixement 2.0 Genèrica Creative Commons Reconeixement 2.0 Genèrica icons

Arxiu ( image 269.29 kB)


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