{"id":19461,"date":"2016-02-20T01:22:20","date_gmt":"2016-02-19T17:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/new-horizons-imagery-backs-up-the-claim-that-charon-plutos-biggest-moon-once-had-an-ocean\/"},"modified":"2016-02-20T01:22:20","modified_gmt":"2016-02-19T17:22:20","slug":"new-horizons-imagery-backs-up-the-claim-that-charon-plutos-biggest-moon-once-had-an-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/new-horizons-imagery-backs-up-the-claim-that-charon-plutos-biggest-moon-once-had-an-ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"New Horizons imagery backs up the claim that Charon, Pluto\u2019s biggest moon, once had an ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_231511\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-231511\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-231511\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/160219-charon-630x341.jpg\" alt=\"Charon\" width=\"630\" height=\"341\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/160219-charon-630x341.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/160219-charon-768x416.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/160219-charon-1240x672.jpg 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-231511\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This close-up of canyons on Charon was taken by NASA\u2019s New Horizons probe during its flyby last July. The color-coded picture shows elevation data. Serenity Chasma\u2019s depth can exceed 4 miles in some places. In comparison, the Grand Canyon\u2019s maximum depth is a mere mile. (Credit: NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Scientists say the patterns of ice in canyons on Charon, Pluto\u2019s largest moon, look as if some the&nbsp;frozen water was once liquid. And that suggests Charon&nbsp;had a subsurface ocean in ancient times.<\/p>\n<p>The evidence comes from close analysis of images and elevation data collected last July when NASA\u2019s New Horizons probe zoomed past Pluto and its moons. Even before the flyby, scientists speculated that Charon may have harbored liquid water, and that some water may still flow beneath its icy surface. The stereo measurements&nbsp;from New Horizons\u2019&nbsp;Long Range Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LORRI, are consistent with that hypothesis.<\/p>\n<p>The clues come in the form of stretch marks in the ice around Serenity Chasma, a canyon that\u2019s 4.5 miles deep in some places.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCharon\u2019s tectonic landscape shows that, somehow, the moon expanded in its past, and \u2013 like Bruce Banner tearing his shirt as he becomes the Incredible Hulk \u2013 Charon\u2019s surface fractured as it stretched,\u201d the science team said in an image advisory on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Flying Over Charon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lrMBzJcvtt0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Such an expansion would have occurred as liquid water turned to ice. As anyone who has left a can of soda in the freezer knows, water (and Coke) expands when it freezes.<\/p>\n<p>Pluto and its moons&nbsp;aren\u2019t the likeliest places to find liquid water: The surface temperature is thought to be around 380 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. But New Horizons\u2019 data already has delivered some intriguing observations of water ice&nbsp;on Pluto and Charon.<\/p>\n<p>Pluto\u2019s&nbsp;11,000-foot-high mountains made of frozen H2O&nbsp;and ice volcanoes suggest there\u2019s an active subsurface geology, capable of pushing up ice from below. Pluto and Charon, like Earth, probably had (and may still have)&nbsp;radioactive elements in their cores&nbsp;that keep&nbsp;the interior warm enough for water to flow.<\/p>\n<p>Could liquid water, and perhaps even life, still exist beneath the surface there?&nbsp;That may be going too far, but if future explorers need to fill up their canteen on the way to Alpha Centauri, they know where to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This close-up of canyons on Charon was taken by NASA\u2019s New Horizons probe during its flyby last July. The color-coded picture shows elevation data. Serenity Chasma\u2019s depth can exceed 4 miles in some places. In comparison, the Grand Canyon\u2019s maximum depth is a mere mile. (Credit: NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI) Scientists say the patterns [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2172,4809,2174,2848],"class_list":["post-19461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-charon","tag-nasa-new-horizons","tag-new-horizons","tag-pluto"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}