Charon
Charon's diameter is about half Pluto's, making it one of the largest moons relative to its parent body. The two are mutually tidally locked and orbit a barycenter outside Pluto, so they are often likened to a near-binary dwarf-planet system.
Charon Science file
With Pluto, · orbiting a shared center of mass
Basic properties
- Distance from the Sun
- 19,596 km
- Equatorial diameter
- 1,212 km
- Orbital period
- 6.39 Earth days
- Rotation period
- 6.39 Earth days
- Surface gravity
- About 2.9% of Earth's
- Typical temperature
- About −258 to −213°C
- Atmosphere
- No detectable atmosphere
- Moon system
- No moons of its own
Highlights
Dark-red Mordor Macula
Dark-red material covers Charon's north pole, perhaps formed when methane escaping Pluto was irradiated and deposited in the extreme cold.
A rift system spanning the world
The immense canyon belt runs for more than 1,600 kilometers and may record global fracturing as a subsurface ocean froze and expanded.
Two worlds forever face to face
Charon and Pluto share the same rotation and orbital periods, keeping the same hemispheres turned toward each other.