Charon's Mysterious, Dark Polar Patch Imaged by NASA's New Horizons Spacecraft

First Posted: Jun 23, 2015 11:09 AM EDT

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has captured new images of the icy world of Pluto and its moon, Charon. The new pictures reveal strange dark spot on Charon's pole.

"This system is just amazing," said Alan Stern, New Horizons Principal Investigator, in a news release. "The science team is just ecstatic with what we see on Pluto's close approach hemisphere: Every terrain type we see on the planet-including both the brightest and darkest surface areas-are represented there, it's a wonderland! And about Charon-wow-I don't think anyone expected Charon to reveal a mystery like dark terrains at its pole. Who ordered that?"

As New Horizons approaches Pluto and Charon, it's getting better and better images to beam back to researchers on Earth. There, scientists use a technique called deconvolution to sharpen the raw, unprocessed pictures. Deconvolution, however, can occasionally produce artifacts; this means that the team will be carefully reviewing newer images taken from closer range to determine whether some of the tantalizing details seen in these images persist.

Currently, New Horizons is about 2.9 billion miles from Earth and just 16 million miles from Pluto. The spacecraft is due to arrive near the planet in July, which means that researchers are looking forward to getting even more details about the dwarf planet and its moon. They hope to find out what the dark spot on Charon's pole is, and learn a bit more about the features on Pluto's surface.

Dwarf Planet Pluto Has Light and Dark Terrains, New Horizons Images Reveal

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Tagspluto, Charon, New Horizons, space, NASA