# @nasa on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/C9lG5f6JyOy
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/20779266-nasa-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/413e8d0257.jpg
- **Posted:** 2024-07-18T21:52:41.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA (@NASA) — https://gondola.cc/NASA

## Caption

Pluto’s largest moon has a history 👀⁣
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A little over nine years ago, on July 14, 2015, our New Horizons spacecraft captured high-resolution images of Charon, one of Pluto’s five moons. Charon is 754 miles (1,214 kilometers) across, half the size of Pluto, and the largest known satellite relative to its parent body. It orbits Pluto every 6.4 Earth days.⁣
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Pictures of Charon show a surprisingly complex and violent history. Many New Horizons scientists expected Charon to be a monotonous, crater-battered world; instead, they found a landscape covered with mountains, canyons, landslides, surface-color variations and more. ⁣
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A great canyon system stretches more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) across the entire face of Charon. Four times as long as the Grand Canyon, and twice as deep in places, these faults and canyons indicate a titanic geological upheaval in Charon’s past. Most striking is the reddish north (top) polar region, informally named Mordor Macula.⁣
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This image combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the spacecraft’s Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC); the colors are processed to best highlight the variation of surface properties across Charon.⁣
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Image description: A high resolution image of the moon Charon with a rugged surface pitted by large craters. A wide canyon system stretches across near the center of Charon’s face. The north polar region is darker than the rest of the surface and appears reddish brown.⁣
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Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI⁣
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#Moons #SolarSystem #NewHorizons #Pluto #NASAHistory

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## Tags

pluto, moons, newhorizons, solarsystem, nasahistory

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