New high resolution images Charon, the largest moon of Pluto, was released Thursday by the US space agency NASA.
The images were recorded on July 14, when the probe New Horizons NASA spent at full speed near the dwarf planet and sent to Earth on September 21, explains that statement on the agency.
The images are considered amazing by mission scientists New Horizons , which hoped that the topography of Charon was “dull and littered with craters.” Instead, they found “a covered landscape of mountains, canyons, landslides, color variations and even more”, reads the same document.
In particular, the images show a waist fractures and cannons, slightly north of Charon’s equator. With over 1,600 kilometers long, this structure through the visible face of Charon and extends probably the hidden side, says NASA. It is four times longer than the Great Colorado Canyon and, in some places, twice as deep as that famous ground training.
The existence of this huge flaw indicates that Charon has suffered in the past one “Titanic” geological event dimensions. “It’s like all Charon’s crust had been torn,” says John Spencer, one of the team members.
Scientists have found that the vast plains south of the canyon have fewer craters than the regions to the north, suggesting that it will have formed more recently.
“We are considering the idea that long ago, an underground ocean of water have been frozen, and that the increase in internal volume that followed have made pop the surface of Charon, allowing the emergence of aqueous lavas, “says Paul Schenk, another element team.
Over the next year, scientists will get even sharper images of Charon, another member of the mission, Hal Weaver, provides right now that are “even more spectacular.”
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