Nasa New Horizons Probe Shows New Features of Pluto Moon Charon - The Market Business

New Horizons has put Pluto in its rear-view mirror, but NASA still has many gigabytes of data to download from the probe. As the images and readings trickle back, we’re gaining a greater understanding of the former ninth planet, but also of its moons. The latest image to be released by NASA shows Pluto’s largest moon Charon, and it’s much more lumpy and uneven than you probably expected.

During its flyby of the Pluto system, New Horizons got within 17,000 miles (27,000km) of Charon. This object is about 600 miles in diameter and is massive enough that it actually forms a binary system with Pluto — they both orbit around a single barycenter near Pluto. The images we had of Pluto before the New Horizons mission were not great, but Charon was even more mysterious. The newly released photo reveals a plethora of fascinating geological features, though.

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