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Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - Charon: Moon of Pluto
NASA ^ | 6 Jul, 2018 | Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Institute, U.S. Naval Observatory

Posted on 10/24/2025 12:55:05 PM PDT by MtnClimber

Explanation: A darkened and mysterious north polar region known to some as Mordor Macula caps this premier high-resolution view. The portrait of Charon, Pluto's largest moon, was captured by New Horizons near the spacecraft's closest approach on July 14, 2015. The combined blue, red, and infrared data was processed to enhance colors and follow variations in Charon's surface properties with a resolution of about 2.9 kilometers (1.8 miles). A stunning image of Charon's Pluto-facing hemisphere, it also features a clear view of an apparently moon-girdling belt of fractures and canyons that seems to separate smooth southern plains from varied northern terrain. Charon is 1,214 kilometers (754 miles) across. That's about 1/10th the size of planet Earth but a whopping 1/2 the diameter of Pluto itself, and makes it the largest satellite relative to its parent body in the Solar System. Still, the moon appears as a small bump at about the 1 o'clock position on Pluto's disk in the grainy, negative, telescopic picture inset at upper left. That view was used by James Christy and Robert Harrington at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff to discover Charon 40 years ago in June of 1978.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 10/24/2025 12:55:05 PM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 10/24/2025 12:55:24 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; A Navy Vet; A_perfect_lady; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; ...
Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

3 posted on 10/24/2025 12:56:08 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Looks like it has had some hard wacks.


4 posted on 10/24/2025 1:03:32 PM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain

It lives in a very bad neighborhood.


5 posted on 10/24/2025 1:06:37 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

It’s tough living out where the bus don’t go.


6 posted on 10/24/2025 1:13:51 PM PDT by ComputerGuy
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To: MtnClimber

The cracking around the belt of Charon leads me to think there was a violent collision in the past.


7 posted on 10/24/2025 1:15:51 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: MtnClimber

Not a lot of craters. Why is its surface so young?


8 posted on 10/24/2025 2:26:36 PM PDT by Nateman (Democrats did not strive for fraud friendly voting merely to continue honest elections.)
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To: Nateman
Not a lot of craters. Why is its surface so young?

Likely a frozen surface. Water, Methane, etc. These surfaces flow. even if frozen.

9 posted on 10/24/2025 2:33:10 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Looks pretty shot up, wonder how old all those hits are.


10 posted on 10/24/2025 3:30:52 PM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Am Yisrael Chai ~)
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To: SkyDancer

Hard to say, they’re frozen in time...


11 posted on 10/24/2025 3:36:13 PM PDT by null and void (Trump has 5 kids, 3 baby mamas, a mugshot, lives in government housing, and Liberals still hate him!)
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