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Charon in Enhanced Color with Grand Canyon
NASA’s New Horizons captured this high-resolution enhanced color view of Charon and its Grand Canyon just before closest approach on July 14, 2015. The image combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the spacecraft’s Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC); the colors are processed to best highlight the variation of surface properties across Charon. Charon’s color palette is not as diverse as Pluto’s; most striking is the reddish north (top) polar region, informally named Mordor Macula. Charon is 754 miles (1,214 kilometers) across; this image resolves details as small as 1.8 miles (2.9 kilometers). Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Charon suffered such a surprisingly violent past of titanic upheavals that they created a humongous canyon stretching across the entire face of Pluto’s largest moon – as revealed in a fresh batch of images just returned from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft.
We have been agog in amazement these past few weeks as New Horizons focused its attention on transmitting astounding high resolution imagery and data of Pluto, captured during mankind’s history making first encounter with our solar systems last unexplored planet on July 14, 2015, at a distance of 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers).
Now after tantalizing hints we see that Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, did (…)
Read the rest of Charon Suffered Surprisingly Titanic Upheavals in Fresh Imagery from New Horizons (787 words)
© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2015. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Alan Stern, Charon, cryovolcanism, double planet, grand canyon, Grand Canyon of Charon, JHUAPL, lorri, Mars, MVIC, NASA, New Horizons, other Red Planet, Pluto, red planet, snakeskin textured mountains, valles marineris
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