Key facts
- Scale fact
- 1,214 kmdiameter
- Estimated age
- ~4.5 billion years
- Composition
- Rock and water ice
Charon
1,214 kmdiameter
Visual creditNew Horizons 2015 / NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Southwest Research Institute / Alex Parker / Public domainSource: Wikimedia Commons
Details
Charon is Pluto’s largest moon, with a diameter a little over half Pluto’s own. The pair is mutually tidally locked and orbits a shared center of mass outside Pluto.
Charon is about half Pluto’s diameter, large enough that the system’s center of mass lies in the space between them. Both bodies rotate once per 6.4-day orbit and keep the same faces toward each other, so from one hemisphere of Pluto, Charon hangs motionless in the sky.
New Horizons resolved a tectonic belt of canyons and plains across Charon and a reddish cap around the north pole. The color is consistent with methane escaping Pluto, becoming trapped near Charon’s cold pole and being transformed by radiation into heavier organic material.
Links
- Universe journey
- Solar System
- Wikipedia
- Charon on Wikipedia
Size neighbors
Objects near Charon on the scale
Sources
References for Charon
Measurements and descriptive context are compiled by the Scale of Space team from the references below. If you find an error, please let us know.
- Charon — Wikipedia
- Visual reference: Wikimedia Commons (New Horizons 2015 / NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Southwest Research Institute / Alex Parker, Public domain)
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About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.