Charon Solar System Universe Astronomy Space Pluto 2

Charon is a moon of pluto. James christy discovered charon on june 22 1978. The distance between them is 19640 km 12200 miles.

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It glows at 14th magnitude making it a thousand times dimmer than the faintest objects visible with naked eyes.

Charon solar system universe astronomy space pluto 2. Charon is almost half the size of pluto. Charon is sufficiently massive to have collapsed into a spheroid under its own gravity. Charons diameter is 1212 kilometres 753 mi just over half that of pluto and larger than the dwarf planet ceres and the twelfth largest natural satellite in the solar system. This makes charon the moon whose size is the largest fraction of its parent planet.

Charon is nearly as big as pluto. What had once been thought to be a solitary body occupying the outer edge of our solar system suddenly appeared to have a system with a large moon charon. Charon is much larger than plutos other moons. The mission was necessary because frankly pluto doesnt look like much from earth.

Charon is also very close to pluto. Even the sharp eye of the hubble space telescope reveals little more than mottled patches of white orange and black. That is the primary justification for putting pluto in the class of dwarf planets rather than terrestrial planets. Some astronomers call pluto and charon a double planet.

And as time went on a total of four moons would be discovered. The year of pluto new horizons documentary brings humanity closer to the edge of the solar system duration. In addition to charon pluto has four small moons. The hubble space telescope photographed pluto and charon in 1994 when pluto was about 30 au from earth.

Subsequent observations of charon showed that this moon is in a retrograde orbit and has a diameter of about 1200 kilometers more than half the size of pluto itself figure 2. Comparison of the sizes of pluto and its moon charon with earth. Because charon is so close it goes around pluto fast. This graphic vividly shows how tiny pluto is relative to a terrestrial planet like earth.

The little moon is so big that pluto and charon are sometimes referred to as a double dwarf planet system.