Pluto Moon: Scientists Explain Charon's Red Cap, NASA New Horizons Data

Pluto's moon, Charon, has a red cap, and there are many possibilities for how it originated according to the many theories brought by studies and other data. Now, there are new developments on this, and the researchers based this on the New Horizons data, coming from NASA's ongoing venture that studies the dwarf planet.

Pluto Moon: Charon's Red Cap Gets Explanation from Researchers

A research published on AGU entitled "Extreme Exospheric Dynamics at Charon: Implications for the Red Spot" brings a new explanation as to what the red spot is on Charon, Pluto's moon. It aims to identify and theorize where the site came from and how it got on top of the moon, looking like a red cap, which remains a scientific phenomenon to date.

The researchers gathered data that is available from the NASA New Horizons mission, and its survey helped a lot in giving astronomers a look at the red spot that sits on top of the Charon.

"Our team's novel 'dynamic photolysis' experiments provided new limits on the contribution of interplanetary Lyman-alpha to the synthesis of Charon's red material," SwRI's Dr. Ujjwal Raut, lead author of the "Charon's Refractory Factory" study, said.

NASA New Horizons: What Is It and How Important Is It?

NASA's New Horizons is a study by the space agency about the dwarf planet, focusing on its current existence and investigating the many happenings in the distant space rock. It provides data regarding Pluto, and it helps in supplying information to different researches that will help in identifying more about the dwarf planet and its current state.

NASA's Study on Pluto

The New Horizons mission is a surveying project by NASA to look at Pluto and the region surrounding it, focusing on the last planet in our solar system to see its many changes and current state. The recent discoveries made by the New Horizons are a signal for future astronaut missions to venture on the dwarf planet right on the edge.

Cold moons like Pluto present a different take on the surrounding satellite on planets that are present in space, and this further explains the many possibilities of thriving with the said moons nearby. Pluto is still seeing debates from many astronomers and scientific bodies regarding its classification as a dwarf planet, for its reinstation as a regular planet.

The new research aims to explain the origins of the red cap seen on top of the Charon, a scientific phenomenon that researchers have been trying to explain for a long time. The NASA New Horizons continues to get data regarding the planet that researchers use for their studies, focused on presenting more of what Pluto as a planet.

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Written by Isaiah Richard