Charon (moon)
Charon
Pluto and Charon Discovery Discovered by
James W. Christy Discovered on
June 22, 1978
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New Horizons flyby mission ...
Charon
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Charon
Related Category: Astronomy: General
in astronomy, the natural satellite, or moon, of Pluto.
Charon's influence
The notion of a grim ferryman, named or not, is very widespread, with the most enduring image in the modern psyche being the skeletal figure in the film Clash of the Titans, ...
Charon
James W. Christy, a U.S. Naval Observatory scientist, was studying plates to refine our knowledge of Pluto's orbit and position, when the discovery of Charon was made. The discovery image of Charon and Pluto was taken on July 2, 1978.
CHARON
Pluto's only known satellite was discovered as a small bump on images of the planet that were recorded photographically at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz.
Charon and Other Moons
Although Pluto was discovered in 1930, Charon wasn't detected until 1978 because the moon is orbiting so close to Pluto that the two worlds are usually blurred together when viewed through ground-based telescopes.
Charon
In 1978, careful Earth-based observation indicated that the image of Pluto had a slight bulge. This was interpreted as evidence for a previously unknown moon, named Charon.
Charon
Charon ( "KAIR en" ) is Pluto's largest satellite: orbit: 19,640 km from Pluto diameter: 1206 km mass: 1.52e21 kg
Charon is named for the mythological figure who ferried the dead across the River Acheron into Hades (the underworld).
Charon, the largest moon of Pluto.
(15760) 1992 QB1, the prototype cubewano, the first Kuiper belt object discovered after Pluto and Charon.
1998 WW31, the first binary Kuiper belt object discovered after Pluto and Charon.
Charon and Pluto keep the same face towards each other at all times. This means that imaginary aliens living on one side of Charon would never see Pluto, and imaginary aliens living on the opposite side of Pluto would never see Charon.
Charon, 's only known moon, is almost as large as the planet itself.
References
Arnett, W. "The Nine Planets: Pluto and Charon." .
Charon is unusually large for a moon; it is almost half the size of Pluto!
Pluto and Charon
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Charon's discovery was announced by Captain J.C. Smith of the U.S. Naval Observatory on July 7, 1978. It was discovered by James W.
Charon independently would satisfy the size and shape criteria for planetary status (and in the terms of the final resolution, for the status of dwarf planet) ...
Charon was discovered by Jim Christy in 1978. Charon was named after the mythological demon who ferried people across the mythological river Styx into Hades.
DISCOVERY OF PLUTO
Pluto was the last planet to be discovered.
Charon is the moon closest in size to its planet, Pluto. Earth's Moon is second in that comparison.
Moons of the Solar System
PLANET ...
Charon: Pluro's moon.
Cluster: A group of stars that are close together.
COBE: The COsmic Background Explorer. COBE was launched into Earth orbit in 1989 to image the cosmic background radiation.
Charon -- In Greek mythology, ferryman of the River Styx, who carried the dead to the underworld. Each dead person was buried with a coin in his mouth or on his eyelids to pay for the crossing.
chasma -- A large canyon.
Charon is about 1300 kilometers wide (or roughly 800 miles). While much smaller than our Moon's 3500 kilometer diameter, ...
CHARON
Charon is the only moon orbiting the planet . It is small, about 1,172 km in diameter. It orbits about 19,640 km from Pluto on average. It may be covered by water ice and probably has no atmosphere.
Charon and Pluto comprise a multiple object system. The primary object (Pluto) is designated a dwarf planet because it independently satisfies the conditions above.
Charon's discovery also resulted in the calculation of Pluto's albedo being revised upward; since the planet was now seen as being far smaller than originally estimated, ...
Pluto and Charon
Pluto, long considered to be planet number nine, has been relegated to dwarf status, but that does not change its significance in our galaxy. A great deal of time and study has been devoted to the former planet.
Discovery of Charon, the moon of Pluto, by James Christy and Robert Harrington
1980 A.D.
Near Saturn ...
When Pluto and Charon pass in front of each other, the total light from the Pluto-Charon system decreases. The length of time it takes for the eclipse to happen and the speed that Charon orbits Pluto can be used to calculate their linear diameters.
Charon (NASA Thesaurus) Natural satellite of the planet Pluto, discovered and named by Dr. James W. Christy.
The discovery of Charon also allowed astronomers to measure Pluto's radius very precisely. Pluto's angular size is much less than 1", so its true diameter is blurred by the effects of Earth's turbulent atmosphere.
Pluto and its moons Charon, Hydra and Nix.
Scientists have a solid understanding of how planets are formed, but it the actual ingredients and conditions that resulted in the creation of our solar system remain unclear.
This is actually a good thing, since recently Pluto and Charon were orientated in such a way that they would eclipse each other. Why is that important?
Artist's concept of the New Horizons spacecraft during its planned encounter with Pluto and its moon, Charon.
For many years very little was known about the planet, but in 1978 astronomers discovered a relatively large moon orbiting Pluto at a distance of only about 19,000 km (about 12,000 mi) and named it Charon.
Charon, Pluto's only moon, probably once had a similar composition to its parent dwarf planet. Today, however, Charon is covered mainly by dark water ice, and Pluto mainly by bright methane ice.
Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, are cold balls of ice and rock on the fringes of the solar system. In this artist's concept, the Sun shows up as a pale yellow dot, about three billion miles from the two worlds.
The largest one is called Charon. Its diameter is about 1200km, which is relatively very large, over one half of Pluto's. Moreover, the time for Charon to go around Pluto is the same as the rotational period of Pluto.
of Pluto and Charon)
After Percival Lowell established his Flagstaff observatory and published three books on Mars, its canals and supposed inhabitants, he turned his attention to the outer planets.
Dust storms during 1983 and 1984 appeared to further lower the contrast of the Elysium and Trivium Charontis region [Parker et al., 1999]. On May 14, 1984, A.L.P.O.
Pluto is tidally coupled to its moon Charon; if you were standing on Pluto, its moon Charon would either always be visible or never be visible.
This should reach Pluto and its moon Charon between 2015 an 2017. We will then have even more detailed images of Pluto and its moon than the Hubble Space Telescope can take.
The moon Charon is just below it. The newly discovered moons, Nix and Hydra, are to the right of Pluto and Charon. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JHU/APL), A. Stern (SwRI), and the HST Pluto Companion Search Team
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It is almost a double planet system because it is orbited by a large moon, Charon. The discovery of the moon Charon weakened the theory that Pluto is an escaped moon of Neptune.
asteroids (in asteroid (astronomy): Origin and evolution of the asteroids)
Charon (in Pluto (dwarf planet): Origin of Pluto and its moons)
Oort cloud (in Oort cloud (astronomy))
planets
(in small body (astronomy)) ...
Neptune
Pluto—with its moon Charon sometimes considered a double planet, and also sometimes not considered a planet at all, but simply the largest of the Trans-Neptunian objects in the Kuiper belt.
No other pair in the Solar System are so close in size (except for Pluto's main satellite, Charon, but they are an unusual pair for a lot of other reasons that I will not discuss at this time).
It was the first trans-Neptunian object discovered and is one of the largest. It has three companions: Charon (discovered in 1978 by J. Christy) and Hydra and Nix (discovered in 2005 by the Hubble Space Telescope Pluto Companion Search Team).
The moon, currently assigned the temporary name P4, is the smallest of Pluto's satellites - astronomers estimate that its diameter is between 13 and 34 kilometres. The largest moon Charon is 1, ...
Planet:
Large spherical object shining by a star. Our planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto (+Charon ?) ...
The rule also holds for the seventh planet, Uranus, which lies at about 19 a.u. Bode's law fails for the eighth planet, Neptune. However, Pluto/Charon, the ninth planet from the Sun, ...
Its path around the sun is so big that it takes 248 earth years to make one orbit of the sun. Pluto is the smallest planet. Pluto's satellite is called Charon. Two smaller moons named Nix and Hydra wPluto no longer a planet! ...
A large ring of icy, primitive objects beyond the orbit of Neptune. Kuiper Belt objects are believed to be remnants of the original material that formed the Solar System. Some astronomers believe Pluto and Charon are Kuiper Belt objects.
L ...
New Horizons is a NASA robotic spacecraft mission currently en route to the dwarf planet Pluto. It is expected to be the first spacecraft to fly by and study Pluto and its moons, Charon , Nix , and Hydra ....
Soft gamma repeater ...
is a natural body that revolves around a planet and is also called a moon. With the IAU's 2006 decision on the definition of a planet (which changed the definition of Pluto), a satellite (moon) can also revolve around a dwarf planet, as Charon does ...
The Kuiper Belt, which lies outside of the orbit of Neptune, contains numerous dwarf planets, including Pluto and its companion Charon; these dwarf planets are called plutonian objects.
 See also: Planet, Pluto, Solar, Orbit, Earth
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