The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has released the first list of official names for the various valleys, crevices and craters on Pluto’s largest moon, Charon.
According to the IAU, many of the feature names in the Pluto system pay homage to the spirit of human exploration, honoring travelers, explorers and scientists, pioneering journeys, and mysterious destinations.
These named were first proposed by NASA's New Horizons team; the team gathered most of their ideas during the “Our Pluto” online naming campaign in 2015, in the months before the New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto and its moons. The New Horizons mission team began using the names informally in 2015 as the spacecraft imaged and mapped the amazing features of Pluto and its moons.
Here is the list of the 12 names and their descriptions from the IAU press release (slightly edited). Three of the names belong to sci-fi authors/filmmakers, six belong to explorers in story and mythology, and three are named after legendary ships of exploration. There are several other names that are still pending approval; the complete list is at en.wikipedia.org/….
Name |
Named After |
Argo Chasma |
Ship sailed by Jason and the Argonauts, in the epic Latin poem Argonautica, during their quest for the Golden Fleece |
Butler Mons |
Octavia E. Butler, the first science fiction writer to win a MacArthur fellowship, and whose Xenogenesis trilogy describes humankind’s departure from Earth and subsequent return. |
Caleuche Chasma |
The mythological ghost ship that travels the seas around the small island of Chiloé, off the coast of Chile; according to legend, the Caleuche explores the coastline collecting the dead, who then live aboard it forever |
Clarke Montes |
Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the prolific science fiction writer and futurist whose novels and short stories (including 2001: A Space Odyssey) were imaginative depictions of space exploration. |
Dorothy Crater |
Dorothy, intrepid traveler, from the Wizard of Oz. |
Kubrick Mons |
Stanley Kubrick, whose iconic 2001: A Space Odyssey tells the story of humanity’s evolution from tool-using hominids to space explorers and beyond. |
Mandjet Chasma |
One of the boats in Egyptian mythology that carried the sun god Ra (Re) across the sky each day — making it one of the earliest mythological examples of a vessel of space travel. |
Nasreddin Crater |
The protagonist in thousands of humorous folktales told throughout the Middle East, southern Europe and parts of Asia |
Nemo Crater |
The captain of the Nautilus, the submarine in Jules Verne’s novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and The Mysterious Island (1874) |
Pirx Crater |
The main character in a series of short stories by Stanislaw Lem, who travels between the Earth, Moon and Mars |
Revati Crater |
A character in the Hindu epic narrative Mahabharata — widely regarded as the first in history (circa 400 BC) to include the concept of time travel. the-wanderling.com/... |
Sadko Crater |
The adventurer who travelled to the bottom of the sea in the medieval Russian epic Bylina. |
Here are images of some well-known and some less-known historical and mythological characters and ships whose names now appear on Charon -
Charon
Charon is the largest of the five known natural satellites of the dwarf planet Pluto. With a diameter of 1,214 km, half that of Pluto, Charon is the largest satellite relative to its planet in the solar system. Its gravitational influence is such that the barycenter of the Pluto–Charon system lies outside Pluto, as seen in the animation below. Charon and Pluto orbit each other every 6.387 days and their rotational period is also 6.387 days. The two objects are gravitationally locked to one another, so each keeps the same face towards the other. Charon is the innermost moon.
Charon itself is named after Charon, the ferryman of the dead in Greek mythology.
In September 2016, astronomers announced that the reddish-brown cap of the north pole of Charon is composed of tholins, organic macromolecules that may be essential ingredients of life, and produced from methane, nitrogen and related gases released from the atmosphere of Pluto and transferred over about 19,000 km distance to the orbiting moon.
Here is a simulated flyover over Charon -
New Horizons
The New Horizons spacecraft is currently 6.16 billion km from Earth, headed toward a New Year’s Day 2019 encounter with the Kuiper Belt object (486958) 2014 MU69, nicknamed Ultima Thule, which orbits about 1.6 billion km beyond Pluto.
References
- Pluto’s Largest Moon, Charon, Gets Its First Official Feature Names — www.iau.org/…
- Pluto’s Big Moon Charon Reveals a Colorful and Violent History — www.nasa.gov/…
- List of geological features on Charon — en.wikipedia.org/...
- A Charming Request to Make Pluto a Planet Again — www.dailykos.com/…
- Pluto - Planet or Dwarf Planet? — www.dailykos.com/...