New Horizons sent the first after the crash photos of Pluto and Charon

Photo: NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI

The interplanetary station New Horizons has sent new photos of Pluto and Charon, the first after the incident with the equipment failure. The images were obtained by astronomers on July 8, 2015 , when the device was at a distance of more than 6 million kilometers from the planetoid. Images are captured using tools such as the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and Ralph. The first tool specializes in high-resolution black and white photographs, and the second in low-resolution color photographs.

Pluto and Charon - an interesting pair to explore. Two ice worlds that revolve around the center of gravity, the planetoids have long been interested in specialists. It is now believed that both worlds have spent together billions of years, but still they are not “relatives”, but rather, they were randomly connected.


Pluto and Charon, July 8 photograph, with a color image from Ralph overlaying a black and white photograph from LORRI
')
The surface of Pluto is covered with light and dark areas, while Charon has a more uniform surface, although the polar region is darker. The reddish material that Pluto stains is absent on Charon. In addition, Pluto has an atmosphere, and Charon does not. Pluto is covered with frozen nitrogen, methane, carbon monoxide (CO). The surface of Charon is covered with water ice and ammonia derivatives. Also, scientists note that the surface of Pluto is mostly rocky, and in Charon the amount of water ice and rocks on the surface correspond as 50/50.


Pluto, snapshot taken by LORRI

"These two objects are together for billions of years, in the same orbit, but they are extremely different," said one Alan Stern, SwRI (Southwest Research Institute).

The diameter of Charon is 1200 km, which is approximately two times smaller than the diameter of Pluto. Thus, Charon is a unique satellite of the planet in the solar system, if we take the ratio of satellites to the size of their planets. Now it is quite difficult to get clear photos of Charon, since its surface is almost uniform and flat. However, as we get closer to Pluto and Charon, New Horizons will be able to get clearer pictures.


Charon, snapshot taken by LORRI

The newly discovered bright areas on Charon can be impact craters. If this is true, scientists will be able to use this fact for the benefit of themselves, since the impact crater may show the surface layers of the planet. In any case, it is already clear that Charon is a completely separate world, which develops according to its own laws.

It is worth recalling that the New Horizons closer to Pluto to the minimum distance already on July 14.