{"id":718596,"date":"2026-06-06T08:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T08:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/718596\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T08:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T08:09:08","slug":"apod-2026-june-6-charon-moon-of-pluto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/718596\/","title":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 June 6 \u2013 Charon: Moon of Pluto"},"content":{"rendered":"

APOD: 2026 June 6 \u2013 Charon: Moon of Pluto<\/p>\n

Discover the cosmos!<\/a>
\nEach day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.\n<\/p>\n

2026 June 6
\n

\n\"See<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Charon: Moon of Pluto
Image Credit: <\/p>\n

NASA<\/a>,
\nJohns Hopkins Univ.\/APL<\/a>,
\nSouthwest Research Institute<\/a>,
\nU.S. Naval Observatory<\/a><\/p>\n

Explanation: <\/p>\n

A darkened and mysterious north polar region
\nknown to some as<\/a>
\nMordor Macula caps this premier view
\nof Charon, Pluto’s largest moon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The high-resolution image
\nwas captured by the
\ninterplanetary<\/a> space probe
\nNew Horizons<\/a>
\nnear its closest approach to distant Pluto on July 14, 2015.<\/p>\n

The combined blue, red, and infrared<\/a>
\nimage data was processed to enhance colors
\nand follow variations in Charon’s surface properties
\nwith a resolution of about 2.9 kilometers (1.8 miles).<\/p>\n

A stunning image of Charon’s Pluto-facing hemisphere, it also
\nfeatures a clear view of an apparently moon-girdling belt of
\nfractures and canyons that seems to
\nseparate smooth southern plains from varied northern terrain.<\/p>\n

Charon is 1,214 kilometers (754 miles) across.<\/p>\n

That’s about 1\/10th the size of planet Earth
\nbut a whopping 1\/2 the diameter of
\nPluto itself<\/a>,
\nand makes it the largest satellite relative to its
\nparent body in the Solar System.<\/p>\n

Still, the moon appears as a small bump at about the 1 o’clock position
\non Pluto’s disk in the grainy, negative, telescopic picture inset
\nat upper left.<\/p>\n

That image was used by James Christy and Robert Harrington
\nat the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff to
\ndiscover Charon in June of 1978<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow’s picture: Jupiter and Venus from Earth<\/a> <\/p>\n

<<\/a>
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\n Authors & editors:
\nRobert Nemiroff<\/a>
\n(MTU<\/a>) &
\nJerry Bonnell<\/a> (UMCP<\/a>)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn
\nSpecific rights apply<\/a>.
NASA Web Privacy<\/a>,
\nAccessibility<\/a>,
\nNotices<\/a>;
A service of:
\nASD<\/a> at
\nNASA<\/a> \/
\nGSFC<\/a>,
\n
NASA Science Activation<\/a>
\n
& Michigan Tech. U.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 June 6 \u2013 Charon: Moon of Pluto Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,348461,1043,78602,81572,128,285],"class_list":["post-718596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-charon","tag-discovery","tag-new-horizons","tag-pluto","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}