Pluto's Moon Charon Gets The High-Resolution Treatment
In all the hubbub about Pluto's surface, the dwarf planet's moon, Charon, has gotten a bit lost. While we may have forgotten about Charon, NASA definitely hasn't, and they released a gorgeous image of Charon's colorful, pockmarked surface:
Charon in Enhanced Color NASA's New Horizons captured this high-resolution enhanced color view of Charon just before closest approach on July 14, 2015… Charon's color palette is not as diverse as Pluto's; most striking is the reddish north (top) polar region, informally named Mordor Macula. Charon is 754 miles (1,214 kilometers) across; this image resolves details as small as 1.8 miles (2.9 kilometers).
And here's a composite image with Charon (background) in relation to Pluto.
This composite of enhanced color images of Pluto (lower right) and Charon (upper left), was taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft as it passed through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015. This image highlights the striking differences between Pluto and Charon. The color and brightness of both Pluto and Charon have been processed identically to allow direct comparison of their surface properties, and to highlight the similarity between Charon's polar red terrain and Pluto's equatorial red terrain.
NASA also released this brief rendered flyover of Charon's surface:
