Saturday, October 3, 2015

New Horizons passes Charon

Recently we heard about how the New Horizons spacecraft finally reached Pluto and transmitted back images that are bright and in high definition. Although the excitement has died down a bit since the first announcement and images, New Horizons is still out there collecting data and sending back to earth. One of the most recent reports include these images of Pluto's largest moon, Charon.
Considering the time and distance between us and Charon it is incredible to have access to such information that provides a detailed history of what has happened on and below the surface of this moon. From these images researchers can see several craters on one of the plains south of Charon's major canyon. The team thinks that an ocean under the surface of Charon could have frozen long ago leading to an expansion that created a major resurfacing. The video below gives a detailed view of Charon's surface from a digital rendering.



If you would like to know more about this you can follow this link to read an article on Charon.