First global maps of Pluto and Charon from NASA's New Horizons mission published
Tuesday, July 10, 2018 - 11:00
in Astronomy & Space
Until 2015, it was not known whether Pluto or its largest moon, Charon, had mountains or valleys or even impact craters. After the spectacular success of New Horizons in July 2015, scientists were amazed at the towering peaks and deep valleys that were revealed in the returned data. Now, thanks to the efforts of the New Horizons team, the first official validated global map and topographic maps of these two bodies have been published and are available to all. The maps and the process of creating them are described in two new research articles published in the journal Icarus.