                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

                                 2023 June 3

                            Charon: Moon of Pluto
       Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research
                      Institute, U.S. Naval Observatory

   Explanation: A darkened and mysterious north polar region known to some
   as Mordor Macula caps this premier high-resolution view. The portrait
   of Charon, Pluto's largest moon, was captured by New Horizons near the
   spacecraft's closest approach on July 14, 2015. The combined blue, red,
   and infrared data was processed to enhance colors and follow variations
   in Charon's surface properties with a resolution of about 2.9
   kilometers (1.8 miles). A stunning image of Charon's Pluto-facing
   hemisphere, it also features a clear view of an apparently
   moon-girdling belt of fractures and canyons that seems to separate
   smooth southern plains from varied northern terrain. Charon is 1,214
   kilometers (754 miles) across. That's about 1/10th the size of planet
   Earth but a whopping 1/2 the diameter of Pluto itself, and makes it the
   largest satellite relative to its parent body in the Solar System.
   Still, the moon appears as a small bump at about the 1 o'clock position
   on Pluto's disk in the grainy, negative,telescopic picture inset at
   upper left. That view was used by James Christy and Robert Harrington
   at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff to discover Charon in June
   of 1978.

                       Tomorrow's picture: look beyond
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

