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(GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER) CHARON: PLUTO’S LARGEST MOON

(NOVEMBER-2024)

CHARON: PLUTO’S LARGEST MOON

James Webb telescope recently detected carbon dioxide, hydrogen peroxide on surface of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon. Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

Key highlights:

Webb for the first time detected carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide - both frozen as solids - on the surface of Charon, a spherical body about 750 miles (1,200 km) in diameter.
The Webb observations build on data obtained when NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew by Charon during its visit to the Pluto system in 2015.
The presence of hydrogen peroxide speaks to the irradiation processes Charon has experienced over time, while the carbon dioxide is probably an original component dating to this moon’s formation about 4.5 billion years ago.
The hydrogen peroxide, formed as the water ice on Charon’s surface was chemically altered by the perpetual onslaught of ultraviolet radiation from the sun as well as energetic particles from the solar wind and from galactic cosmic rays that traverse the universe.
Carbon dioxide observed by Webb was probably buried underneath the surface and exposed by impacts on Charon. The carbon dioxide, is likely to have been part of the primordial material from which both Charon and Pluto originally formed.
The new observations of Charon help tell a broader story about the celestial bodies populating our solar system.
The researchers used a Webb instrument called the Near-Infrared Spectrograph to make four observations in 2022 and 2023, getting full coverage of Charon’s northern hemisphere.