News Archive / Tagged: Charon

• Study of Pluto’s subsurface ocean drives potential return mission

  Laurel KornfeldMarch 12th, 2022

  A $3 billion return mission to Pluto with an orbiter is being proposed to further study the subsurface oceans of both Pluto and its large moon Charon.

• Images of Pluto’s dark side produced using reflected sunlight from Charon

  Laurel KornfeldDecember 13th, 2021

  A team of scientists produced images of Pluto's dark side using reflected sunlight from its large moon Charon in images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft to tease out features on that side in low resolution.

• Videos simulate Pluto, Charon flyby; follow up mission proposed

  Laurel KornfeldAugust 1st, 2021

  NASA's New Horizons team released new movies simulating the spacecraft's 2015 flight over Pluto and its large moon Charon to mark the sixth anniversary of the encounter on July 14, 2015.

• NASA funds study of possible Pluto orbiter

  Laurel KornfeldNovember 4th, 2019

  There's no doubt that NASA's New Horizons mission crushed it. This has emboldened the space agency to take their exploration of the far reaches of our solar system to the next level.

• New Horizons team releases images of Pluto’s far side

  Laurel KornfeldOctober 30th, 2019

  More than four years after New Horizons' historic July 2015 Pluto flyby, mission scientists have released detailed images of Pluto's far side, which the spacecraft was able to image only in low resolution on approach and following departure.

• New Horizons data indicates small Kuiper Belt Objects are rare

  Laurel KornfeldMarch 3rd, 2019

  The relatively small number of craters NASA's New Horizons spacecraft found on Pluto's moon Charon indicates very small objects are rare in the Kuiper Belt.

• Ancient subsurface ocean likely source of Charon’s surface ice

  Laurel KornfeldFebruary 25th, 2019

  A study of data returned by New Horizons about Pluto's moon Charon indicates its surface ice originated via eruptions of an ancient subsurface ocean.

• Topographic maps reveal surface details on Pluto and Charon

  Laurel KornfeldJuly 14th, 2018

  Researchers on NASA's New Horizons team have put together global topographic maps of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, which vividly depict the stunning variety of terrains on both worlds.

• IAU approves names for features on Charon

  Laurel KornfeldApril 18th, 2018

  The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has accepted a list of names for features on Pluto's largest moon, Charon, submitted by NASA's New Horizons mission team.

• NASA releases New Horizons flyover video

  NASAJuly 15th, 2017

  Using actual New Horizons data and digital elevation models of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, mission scientists have created flyover movies that offer spectacular new perspectives of the many unusual features that were discovered and which have reshaped our views of the Pluto system – from a vantage point even closer than the spacecraft itself.

• Name themes for Pluto system features approved by IAU

  Laurel KornfeldFebruary 26th, 2017

  A set of naming themes for features on Pluto and its five moons, informally used by the New Horizons mission, has been approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which has overseen the naming of celestial objects and their surface features since 1919.

• New Horizons posters, studies, to be presented at Lunar and Planetary Science Conference

  Laurel KornfeldFebruary 14th, 2017

  Seven poster sessions and seven studies based on data returned by the New Horizons mission will be presented at the 48th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, which will be held in The Woodlands, Texas, on March 20–24 of this year (2017).

• Pluto’s red regions may have been created by Charon-forming impact

  Laurel KornfeldFebruary 3rd, 2017

  The dark red regions around Pluto's equator may have their origins in the giant impact that formed its moon Charon four billion years ago, according to a team of Japanese researchers.

• New Horizons video simulates Pluto landing; Charon had icy tectonic plates

  Laurel KornfeldJanuary 29th, 2017

  NASA's New Horizons mission team has released a video simulating a landing on Pluto's surface; it is made up of over 100 images taken by the spacecraft during its July 14, 2015, flyby of the dwarf planet.

• Charon protects Pluto’s atmosphere from solar wind

  Laurel KornfeldJanuary 12th, 2017

  Pluto's largest moon, Charon, acts as a barrier between the solar wind and Pluto's atmosphere, preventing that atmosphere from being stripped away when the large moon is positioned between the Sun and Pluto, according to a new study published in the journal Icarus.