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                           Astronomy Picture of the Day   
      
       Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our   
         fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation   
                       written by a professional astronomer.   
      
                                    2023 June 3   
      
                               Charon: Moon of Pluto   
          Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research   
                         Institute, U.S. Naval Observatory   
      
      Explanation: A darkened and mysterious north polar region known to some   
      as Mordor Macula caps this premier high-resolution view. The portrait   
      of Charon, Pluto's largest moon, was captured by New Horizons near the   
      spacecraft's closest approach on July 14, 2015. The combined blue, red,   
      and infrared data was processed to enhance colors and follow variations   
      in Charon's surface properties with a resolution of about 2.9   
      kilometers (1.8 miles). A stunning image of Charon's Pluto-facing   
      hemisphere, it also features a clear view of an apparently   
      moon-girdling belt of fractures and canyons that seems to separate   
      smooth southern plains from varied northern terrain. Charon is 1,214   
      kilometers (754 miles) across. That's about 1/10th the size of planet   
      Earth but a whopping 1/2 the diameter of Pluto itself, and makes it the   
      largest satellite relative to its parent body in the Solar System.   
      Still, the moon appears as a small bump at about the 1 o'clock position   
      on Pluto's disk in the grainy, negative,telescopic picture inset at   
      upper left. That view was used by James Christy and Robert Harrington   
      at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff to discover Charon in June   
      of 1978.   
      
                          Tomorrow's picture: look beyond   
        __________________________________________________________________   
      
          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
               NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.   
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                         A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC   
                                & Michigan Tech. U.   
      
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