Charon
Pluto’s close companion
Charon is Pluto’s largest moon. It is surprisingly big beside its partner: its diameter is about half Pluto’s. They travel together like space companions, each keeping the same side turned towards the other. From the right place on Pluto, Charon would stay in nearly the same place in the sky.
Charon has a cold, solid surface. Pictures show craters, enormous cracks, and a reddish area near its north pole. New Horizons flew past the pair and sent detailed photographs. Before that, these distant worlds looked like tiny, blurry dots. Now scientists can compare their mountains, plains, and signs of changes from long ago.
Help Charon get home → Explore in the planetarium →In the planetarium you can spin this world and look at it from every side.
Artist’s impression · the surface is an illustration.
Sources and images
Celestial maps: Solar System Scope / INOVE · CC BY 4.0. Thumbnails were reduced and shaded. Artistic SVG maps were created for this project.