APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Mysterious Pluto and Charon
Explanation: Pluto is the only planet in our Solar System remaining unphotographed by a passing spacecraft. Distant Pluto and its moon Charon therefore remain somewhat mysterious. In addition to direct imaging by the Hubble Space Telescope , careful tracking of brightness changes that occur as each object eclipses the other have allowed astronomers to build up the above black & white surface maps . These maps depict the face of Pluto (left) that always faces Charon, and the face of Charon that always faces away from Pluto . The rectangular pixels are an artifact of the mapping software. The Pluto-Kuiper Express mission is tentatively planned for launch in 2004 and might encounter Pluto as early as 2012.
| Date | April 9, 2000 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Credit: . W. Buie ( Lowell Observatory ), D. J. Tholen (U. Hawaii), and K. Horne (St. Andrews) |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |