So from Pluto's point of view Charon neither rises nor sets, but hovers over the same spot on Pluto's surface, and the same side of Charon always faces Pluto. Charon's orbit around Pluto takes 6.4 Earth days, and one Pluto rotation (a Pluto day) takes 6.4 Earth days. The moon is so big compared to Pluto that Pluto and Charon are sometimes referred to as a double planet system. news/2892/cassini-10-years-at-saturn-top-10-discoveries/#nineĪt half the size of Pluto, Charon is the largest of Pluto's moons and the largest known satellite relative to its parent body. The dark areas absorb energy and become warmer, while uncontaminated areas remain cooler. Dark, reddish dust in Iapetus's orbital path is swept up and lands on the leading face of the moon. Why? Three centuries later, the Cassini spacecraft solved the puzzle. He noted that he could only see Iapetus on the west side of Saturn, and correctly concluded that Iapetus had one side much darker than the other side. When astronomer Giovanni Cassini discovered Iapetus in 1671, he observed that one side of this moon of Saturn was bright and the other dark.
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