Pluto’s
largest moon Charon has almost eclipsed its mother planet on being the hot spot
in our solar system. NASA released
pictures today of Charon, revealing a ‘colorful and violent’ past. One item of excitement is a reddish region
near the north polar region, informally named Mordor Macula.
The
New Horizons spacecraft captured images of mountains, canyons, landslides and
more. Scientists have discovered a huge
canyon that stretches more than 1000 miles, across Charon’s entire face and it
probably extends to the other side. It
is four times longer than the Grand Canyon and twice as deep in some places.
The
smoothness of the moon south of the canyon is evidence of wide-scale resurfacing,
possibly due to ‘cryovolcanism’, a cold volcanic activity. Check out the video below!
New
Horizons is still transmitting data and will continue for the next year.
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