Using new images from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, planetary scientists have discovered that Charon has a ‘dark pole,’ an intriguing dark region that forms a kind of anti-polar cap.
These images, taken by New Horizons’ LORRI camera on June 18, 2015, show the discovery of significant surface details on Charon. The image on the left is the original image, displayed at four times the native LORRI image size. After applying the deconvolution technique, details become visible on the icy moon, including a distinct dark pole. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.
“Wow! I don’t think anyone expected Charon to reveal a mystery like dark terrains at its pole,” said Dr Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, who is the principal investigator for New Horizons.
From the new imagery, Dr Stern and his colleagues also found that Pluto has the greatest variety of terrain types.
“This system is just amazing. The science team is just ecstatic with what we see on Pluto’s close approach hemisphere: every terrain type we see on the planet – including both the brightest and darkest surface areas – are represented there, it’s a wonderland,” Dr Stern said.
Team member Dr Jeff Moore of NASA Ames Research Center added: “the unambiguous detection of bright and dark terrain units on both Pluto and Charon indicates a wide range of diverse landscapes across the pair.”
These images, taken by New Horizons in June 2015, show numerous large-scale features on the surface of the dwarf planet Pluto. When various large, dark and bright regions appear near limbs, they give the planet a distinct, but false, non-spherical appearance. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.
“For example, the bright fringe we see on Pluto may represent frost deposited from an evaporating polar cap, which is now in summer Sun.”
The spacecraft is in good health and operating normally.
It’s around 2.9 billion miles (4.7 billion km) from Earth and just 16 million miles (25 million km) from the Pluto system.
