New Horizons Finds a 'Super Grand Canyon' on Pluto's Largest Moon

[Eugene]

Source: ABC News

New Horizons Finds a 'Super Grand Canyon' on Pluto's Largest Moon

By ALYSSA NEWCOMB Jun 24, 2016, 12:22 PM ET

Check out this space canyon!

NASA's New Horizons sent back an image showing a "Super Grand Canyon" on Pluto's largest moon, Charon, that's longer and deeper than the Grand Canyon here on Earth.

The canyon, which is informally named Argo Chasma, is estimated to be 430 miles long and as deep as 5.5 miles, according to NASA. By comparison, the Grand Canyon in Arizona is 280 miles long and is a little more than a mile deep.

The image was taken when New Horizons was 289,000 miles away from Charon. The space probe made a historic flyby of Pluto and its moons last July, and has since been sending photos and data back to Earth.

The spacecraft, equipped with a power system that converts radiation from decaying plutonium into electricity, loses about a few watts each year but may have enough power for two more decades of exploration, according to NASA. It's currently moving through the Kuiper Belt, an area full of tiny, icy worlds at the edge of the solar system.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/horizons-finds-super-grand-canyon-plutos-largest-moon/story?id=40100603

[niyad]

1. k and r

[SCantiGOP]

2. Guess I won't live long enough

to put this on my 'bucket list' of places to visit as a tourist.

[PJMcK]

3. Probably we won't

But maybe we can take a long weekend on Mars.

[cstanleytech]

4. Doesn't the Mariana Trench make this and the Grand Canyon look like small potatoes?