New pictures show Pluto moon Charon looking almost cracked in half

by Martin Dunphy on October 2nd, 2015 at 3:32 PM

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NASA'a New Horizons space probe continues to send back astonishing photos stored since its brief and historic rendezvous with Pluto earlier this summer.

The above high-resolution enhanced-colour picture of Charon, the largest and most intriguing of the dwarf planet's five moons, was taken on New Horizon's closest approach to the satellite on July 14 and was included in a new batch of just-transmitted photos.

Perhaps the most amazing surface feature is the horizon-to-horizon, 1,600-kilometre-long canyon/fracture system stretching across the face of Charon. That is more than four times longer than the Grand Canyon and almost twice as deep in places, or about three kilometres.

Scientists theorize that the fracture could circle the entire moon. The New Horizons team said in a statement: “These faults and canyons indicate a titanic geological upheaval in Charon’s past.”

John Spencer of the Boulder, Colorado-based Southwest Research Institute wrote: “It looks like the entire crust of Charon has been split open. With respect to its size relative to Charon, this feature is much like the vast Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars.”