Posted on 07/16/2015 9:30:06 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Icy world Charon is 1,200 kilometers across. That makes Pluto's largest moon only about 1/10th the size of planet Earth but a whopping 1/2 the diameter of Pluto itself. Charon is seen in unprecedented detail in this image from New Horizons. The image was captured late July 13 during the spacecraft's flight through the Plutonian system from a range of less than 500,000 kilometers. For reference, the distance separating Earth and Moon is less than 400,000 kilometers. Charonian terrain, described as surprising, youthful, and varied, includes a 1,000 kilometer swath of cliffs and troughs stretching below center, a 7 to 9 kilometer deep canyon cutting the curve of the upper right edge, and an enigmatic dark north polar region unofficially dubbed Mordor.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Inst.]
Absolutely breathtaking.
> Icy world Charon is 1,200 kilometers across. That makes Pluto’s largest moon only about 1/10th the size of planet Earth but a whopping 1/2 the diameter of Pluto itself.
Uh, Charon is 1/10th the diameter of Earth, and only 1/8th the *size* of Pluto (1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2).
Wow, that’s good resolution. You can see Mount Doom and Barad-Dur.
After seeing these bodies, I wonder if a lot of experts are rethinking the “dwarf planet” label. With an obviously active geology (no craters), in some ways Pluto has more of a claim on being a planet than does Mars. Those images were shocking to many.
Regards,
Where are all the photos? I keep seeing the same few over and over.
Your correction only compounds the confusion of the quotation, which refers to the diameter of Pluto, and the size of the earth.
The statement that Charon is 1/2 the diameter of Pluto is correct to reasonable accuracy, but its diameter ( as you state,) not its size, is concommittaly about 1/10 that of earth.
Gosh, I hope I got that right!
They’re saying tomorrow. Give them some room.
It takes 9 hours to send and receive a message from New Horizon.
They said a couple of days ago it’s gonna take 16 months to get the information they’ve gathered in 2 days.
"I try to do things but they don't work out." - INSTITUTIONALIZED by SUICIDAL TENDENDIES
Where are the Mecca Mountains and the Muhammad plain? /s
You got a problem widat? Not sayin' you do! But it's not unreasonable to believe, since the bottleneck is the earth transmission, and there is other business to conduct over that very limited channel.
It's all very carefully planned and arranged, and if you think about it, they've pulled off a veritable miracle of success here, so let's just all back off and make an obeisance or two.
For my part, as an independent consciousness in the universe, granted several nugatory degrees, I wonder at the reliance on cratering as a yardstick of age, since the Pluto system is so distant from the sun. It certainly can’t be compared with Ceres, in the midst of the asteroid belt.
OTOH, it seems Charon has a number of obvious craters, but still, it’s hardly blanketed with them. It’s just hard for me to picture an engine for “active geology” for Pluto, but we’ll see what they say.
;’)
Thanks rikkir and dr_lew. BTW, concomitantly sounds like a word made up by Neil Sedaka. ;’)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3312964/posts?page=10#10
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I gotta say, Charon definitely looks more like our own Moon.
"To Pluto And Far Beyond" By David H. Levy, Parade, January 15, 2006 -- We don't have a dictionary definition yet that includes all the contingencies. In the wake of the new discovery, however, the International Astronomical Union has set up a group to develop a workable definition of planet. For our part, in consultation with several experienced planetary astronomers, Parade offers this definition: A planet is a body large enough that, when it formed, it condensed under its own gravity to be shaped like a sphere. It orbits a star directly and is not a moon of another planet.
...than like what? Than like an Idaho potato? Agreed!
Regards,
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