14 DAY TRIAL // A new close-up of the surface of Charon, the largest moon in the Pluto system, shows a mountain sitting in a ditch with just its peak towering over the nearby landscape.
The image, available below, was obtained by NASA's New Horizons probe this past Tuesday, July 14, about an hour and a half before its flyby of the dwarf planet.
At the time when it spotted this rather peculiar geological feature on Charon, the spacecraft was some 49,000 miles (79,000 kilometers) from the orb, NASA scientists explain.
“The image was taken at approximately 6:30 a.m. EDT (10:30 UTC) on July 14, 2015, about 1.5 hours before closest approach to Pluto, from a range of 49,000 miles (79,000 kilometers),” they detail.
The region shown in the inset accompanying this view of Pluto's moon Charon is estimated to measure about 240 miles (390 kilometers) from top to bottom. The mountain is visible upper left corner.
The view also shows several craters on the orb's surface, some of them quite big. These craters formed when Charon collided with cosmic debris or other celestial bodies such as asteroids.
Mission scientists promise that, in the days to come, New Horizons will deliver more images of the Pluto system, so stay tuned for updates.
