            APOD: 2017 August 14 - Charon Flyover from New Horizons

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                2017 August 14
                      Charon Flyover from New Horizons
  Video Credit: (link)">NASA, JHUAPL [2] , SwRI [3] , P. Schenk & J. Blackwell
                    (LPI [4] ); Music:  Juicy by ALBIS [5]

Explanation: What if you could fly over Pluto's moon Charon -- what might you
see? The New Horizons spacecraft did just this in 2015 July as it zipped past
Pluto [6]  and Charon with cameras blazing. The images recorded allowed for a
digital reconstruction of much of Charon [7] 's surface, further enabling the
creation of fictitious flights over Charon created from this data. One such
fanciful, minute-long, time-lapse video is shown here [8]  with vertical
heights and colors of surface features digitally enhanced. Your journey [9]
begins over a wide chasm that divides different types of Charon's landscape
[10] s, a chasm that might have formed when Charon [11]  froze through. You
soon turn north and fly over a colorful depression dubbed Mordor [12]  that,
one hypothesis holds, is an unusual remnant [13]  from an ancient impact. Your
voyage [14]  continues over an alien landscape [15] rich with
never-before-seen craters, mountains, and crevices. The robotic New Horizons
spacecraft [16]  has now been targeted at Kuiper Belt [17]  object 2014 MU 69
[18] , which it should zoom past on New Year's Day 2019.

                Tomorrow's picture: stars versus stardust [19]

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [31] (MTU [32] ) & Jerry Bonnell [33]
                                  (UMCP [34] )
          NASA Official:  Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [35] .
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              A service of: ASD [37]  at NASA [38]  / GSFC [39]
                           & Michigan Tech. U. [40]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] http://www.jhuapl.edu/
  [3] http://www.swri.org/
  [4] http://www.lpi.usra.edu/
  [5] https://www.last.fm/music/Albis/_/Juicy
  [6] ap170731.html
  [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charon_(moon)
  [8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy9jIikX62o
  [9] https://www-b.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA21864
  [10] ap151002.html
  [11]
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/
pluto-s-big-moon-charon-reveals-a-colorful-and-violent-history
  [12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordor_Macula
  [13] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/science/pluto-moon-charon.html
  [14]
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/
nasa-video-soars-over-pluto-s-majestic-mountains-and-icy-plains
  [15] ap131230.html
  [16] https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/spacecraft/index.html
  [17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt
  [18] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(486958)_2014_MU69
  [19] ap170815.html
  [20] ap170813.html
  [21] archivepix.html
  [22] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [23] lib/aptree.html
  [24] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [25] calendar/allyears.html
  [26] /apod.rss
  [27] lib/edlinks.html
  [28] lib/about_apod.html
  [29] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=170814
  [30] ap170815.html
  [31] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [32] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [33] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [34] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [35] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [36] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [37] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [38] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [39] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [40] http://www.mtu.edu/
