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Eugene

(61,592 posts)
Sat Feb 20, 2016, 10:41 AM Feb 2016

Pluto's Largest Moon Charon May Have Had An Ancient Subsurface Ocean

Source: Tech Times

Pluto's Largest Moon Charon May Have Had An Ancient Subsurface Ocean

By Rina Marie Doctor, Tech Times | February 20, 8:05 AM

Pluto's largest moon Charon may have been a home to an ancient ocean.

NASA's New Horizons flyby was able to capture images suggesting that Charon once had a subsurface ocean that froze and expanded outward, resulting in the surface to stretch out. The space agency compared this possibility to Bruce Banner turning into the big green beast that is the Incredible Hulk.

New Horizons has been giving earthlings so much information about Pluto and its moons since it arrived there in 2015. Now, new images reveal that there may be another explanation to this distinct surface characteristic of Charon.

At the uppermost part of the New Horizons image, experts were able to discover that Charon has a 1,100-mile surface, temporarily dubbed Serenity Chasma. Such surface has chasms that are approximately 4.5 miles in depth.

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Read more: 'http://www.techtimes.com/articles/135063/20160220/plutos-largest-moon-charon-may-have-had-an-ancient-subsurface-ocean.htm

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