Charon Surface Observations: NH Post-Encounter Phase, 1 Aug 2015- TBD |
Charon Surface Observations: NH Post-Encounter Phase, 1 Aug 2015- TBD |
Aug 1 2015, 06:02 PM
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8789 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
This topic is for images and discussion of same received after 1 Aug 2015.
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Aug 2 2015, 07:49 AM
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 82 Joined: 13-July 15 Member No.: 7579 |
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Aug 2 2015, 02:50 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 4259 Joined: 17-January 05 Member No.: 152 |
the Sun is behind the Charon's disc What makes you say that? The size of Charon in that post-encounter frame is roughly similar to its size in this frame: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x632_sci_1.jpg That pre-encounter frame was taken more than a day before closest approach, so the post-encounter frame had to be taken roughly a day after closest approach. But the Charon-sun occultation occured only 2h 15m after closest approach. So the sun must be outside the frame on that Charon crescent image. |
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Aug 2 2015, 03:56 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 244 Joined: 2-March 15 Member No.: 7408 |
The picture fredk linked was taken from a range of 1,462,006 km, according to the metadata file.
The crescent image was taken from a range of 1,986,740 km, according to the metadata file, and since apparent diameter has a simple, inverse relationship with distance, Charon should be about 73.6% the size it was in the image fredk linked. Not that that adds anything to the conversation |
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Aug 4 2015, 06:21 PM
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 82 Joined: 13-July 15 Member No.: 7579 |
Checking the orbital positions, there were Charonshine opportunities for imaging Pluto on July 14, July 20, etc. and Plutoshine opportunities for imaging Charon on July 17, July 23, etc. If we get some regional albedo information for the mid-southern latitudes, that would be great. A bonus would be if we get some details and/or could see if Charon has a dark region at the other pole, too. I'd love to see something like the Saturnshine images of Iapetus, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Yes! I hope that Charon has a dark region at the southern pole, because I believe that Mordor Regio resulted from leakage of ice from the equator in the relaxation process of Charon nonsphericity during deceleration of rotation. |
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Aug 6 2015, 08:53 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1887 Joined: 20-November 04 From: Iowa Member No.: 110 |
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Aug 7 2015, 12:41 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3009 Joined: 30-October 04 Member No.: 105 |
This appears to be a ~ half-size (5000px wide vs 9520px wide) of the previously-released PIA19866 with no new data added, for those who have the earlier map.
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19866 --Bill -------------------- |
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Aug 10 2015, 04:25 PM
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IMG to PNG GOD Group: Moderator Posts: 2256 Joined: 19-February 04 From: Near fire and ice Member No.: 38 |
Here is an updated version of my map of Charon. The main changes are the addition of color (areas where no color was available are colorized) and the addition of a single 400 m/pixel image. Compared to the official map, there are some positional errors (typically ~10 pixels; more near the pole) but they do not affect the overall appearance of the map. Longitude 0 is at the left edge of the map.
I'll probably redo the map completely at higher resolution later this year. |
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Aug 10 2015, 04:54 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1670 Joined: 5-March 05 From: Boulder, CO Member No.: 184 |
Nice map. I appreciate in particular the images are blended more smoothly at the boundaries than we often see in the official versions.
-------------------- Steve [ my home page and planetary maps page ]
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Aug 18 2015, 05:21 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3009 Joined: 30-October 04 Member No.: 105 |
Charon is turning out to be a delightfully complex and fascinating world. It has a polar crater-caldera, a system of lineations with a complex equatorial fracture system, a cratering history and a north-south dichotomy as well as seasonal frosts. Much more than the little Pluto tag-along we were thinking it was.
I am doing a presentation on the Geomorphology of Charon. As always, it is a work-in-progress, so check back: LORRI-MVIC combined imagery https://univ.smugmug.com/New-Horizons-Missi...2B%20MVIC-L.png Preliminary Geomorph of Charon https://univ.smugmug.com/New-Horizons-Missi...orph-v1.0-L.png --Bill -------------------- |
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Sep 10 2015, 06:41 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1887 Joined: 20-November 04 From: Iowa Member No.: 110 |
Upgraded image released
QUOTE This image of Pluto's largest moon Charon, taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft 10 hours before its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015 from a distance of 290,000 miles (470,000 kilometers), is a recently downlinked, much higher quality version of a Charon image released on July 15. I wonder if this means other LORRI images currently posted will be replaced by less compressed versions tomorrow. |
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Sep 10 2015, 07:03 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 423 Joined: 13-November 14 From: Norway Member No.: 7310 |
Charon's north pole looks to me like it could have a relatively young surface - or just having craters as dark as their surroundings?
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Sep 10 2015, 07:19 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1597 Joined: 14-October 05 From: Vermont Member No.: 530 |
NH Blog post today about how the red pole may be tholins left behind after some of Pluto's atmosphere freezes onto Charon's dark pole, only to sublimate away leaving behind trace tholins:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/pluto/2015/09/09/new...arons-red-pole/ |
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Sep 11 2015, 07:34 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 796 Joined: 27-February 08 From: Heart of Europe Member No.: 4057 |
Colorized image of Charon from the newly published images.
2 stacked images colorized using MVIC data. Resolution 2.3 km/pix. -------------------- |
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Sep 11 2015, 09:29 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
NH Blog post today about how the red pole may be tholins left behind after some of Pluto's atmosphere freezes onto Charon's dark pole, only to sublimate away leaving behind trace tholins: Nice theory. If correct this must be a very slow or no longer active process as we see a few bright impact craters punched into it. Wonderful image NH/machi. |
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