Scientists are supposing that Pluto’s largest moon, Charon could be having some spectacular features. NASA launched the New Horizon probe on Pluto two years ago to explore Charon and other moons on Pluto and they recently released data and astonishing images and videos that the spacecraft has been collecting. Charon, which is one of the best unique features on the dwarf planet, has some distinctive attributes including the tectonic activity, cryovolcanism, and a huge ocean.
Whilst Pluto is still active geologically, its biggest satellite moon, Charon, which scientists believe it was formed billions of years ago after a massive collision, is currently a crater-like wasteland. Charon today seems dead but latest findings by Horizons spacecraft indicate that the moon has drastically changed; it’s not the way it used to be in the past.
A study published lately in the journal Icarus verifies that in the past, Charon went through a period of tectonic activity which expanded its surface outward. The paper reveals that Charon has two distinct features of two geologic regions. To the south, there are smooth plains of Vulcan Planum fully coated in the ice emanating from the lava flow, and to the north, an enormous and diverse region known as the Oz Terra.
Recently, NASA officials released a stunning video that allows people on Earth to get a real taste of how things are from Pluto planet. NASA obtained data which were collected by the New Horizons probe when it commenced its mission on the planet in 2015. The dramatic Pluto flyover starts from the highlands and proceeds to the southwest of huge expanse of the nitrogen ice plain known as the Sputnik Planitia.
From the findings, the scientists noticed that Charon is stretching and pulling apart due to the tectonics activity. The planetary scientists believe that Charon has a balloon-like void full of water-ice crust that is breaking apart. The researchers also stated that the moon could have puffed up almost four billion years ago and that there was a warm ocean on it in the past which cooled and froze into a stone. As it grows in volume, the pressure is causing the icy crust to crack and drift apart.
