Charon has a huge expanse of cracks and craters four times as
long as the Grand Canyon. This is according to the best resolution color images
yet of Pluto's largest moon, captured by New Horizons during its flyby of Pluto
back in July. The enormous fractures stretch over the exterior of Charon, which
is nearly more than half of Pluto’s size, revealing an amazingly complex and intense
history. At half the diameter of Pluto, Charon is the largest satellite
relative to its planet in the solar system.
New Horizons researchers anticipated Charon to be an uninteresting or
boring, crater-battered world; but reality is different from what they thought,
they're finding a Charon’s surface concealed with mountains, valleys,
landslides, surface-color deviations and much more.
Ross Beyer, a member of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics
and Imaging (GGI) group from the SETI Institute, said “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. But I couldn't be more delighted with
what we see” High-resolution pictures of the Pluto-facing surface of Charon,
captured by New Horizons as the spacecraft flown through the Pluto system back
in July 14, disclose details of a strap of fractures and canyons just north of
the moon's equator. This huge canyon
system expanses more than 1,000 miles (1,600km) across the complete surface of
Charon and most likely around onto Charon's far side.
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The canyon on Charon, painted in red, expanses more than 1,000
miles (1,600km) across the whole face of Charon and possibly around onto
Charon's far side. Almost four times as long as the Grand Canyon in US.
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It is nearly four times as long as the Grand Canyon, and also
thought to be twice as deep in places, these fractures and canyons specify an immense
geological disturbance in Charon's past.
John Spencer, second-in-command (Deputy) for GGI at the
Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, said “It looks like the entire crust
of Charon has been split open,' said 'With respect to its size relative to
Charon, this feature is much like the vast Valles Marineris canyon system on
Mars”
New Horizons team has also discovered that the plains south of
the Charon's canyon - casually referred to as Vulcan Planum - have less huge
craters than the areas to the north, signifying that they are remarkably
younger.
