New Horizons sends images of Pluto's moon Charon: And it has a Grand Canyon
New Horizons has sent pictures of Pluto's satellite, Charon, which show that the moon has a 'grand canyon' of its own.
New Horizons, the spacecraft that was launched to study the Pluto system, has sent pictures of the planet's satellite, Charon, which show something amazing: a 'grand canyon' of its own.
The massive stretch of chasms here is four times the size of the Grand Canyon (on earth). It covers more than 1,600 km of Charon's surface and it is likely that it stretches onto its far side as well.
This new discovery about Charon, which is more than half of Pluto's size and the largest moon relative to its planet in the solar system, has made the New Horizons scientists rather "delighted".
"We thought the probability of seeing such interesting features on this satellite of a world at the far edge of our solar system was low," said Ross Beyer, an affiliate of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging (GGI) team from the SETI Institute.
The high-resolution pictures of the Pluto's moon reveal the details of these canyons, hinting at some massive geological upheaval that must have occurred on Charon in the past.
The belt of fractures on Charon is not only longer than the Grand Canyon, but also twice as deep in places.
"It looks like the entire crust of Charon has been split open," said John Spencer, deputy lead for GGI at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "With respect to its size relative to Charon, this feature is much like the vast Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars."
The plains that lie on the south of Charon's canyons have lesser large craters than the regions to the north, indicating that they are noticeably younger.
The team has also discovered that the craters on the southern part of Charon's canyons are not as large as the ones in the north. Informally referred to as Vulcan Planum, these plains on the south have crater which also seem 'noticeably younger'.
Scientists are considering these craters to be a result of "an internal water ocean" that froze a long time ago, resulting to a "volume change could have led to Charon cracking open". This could have allowed "water-based lava to reach the surface at that time".
"I predict Charon's story will become even more amazing," said mission Project Scientist Hal Weaver, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
The New Horizons spacecraft is 5 billion kilometres away from Earth at the moment.