| Charon was discovered in 1978, by the U.S. Naval Observatory when a bulge was seen on Pluto. This bulge turned out to be a very close orbiting moon of Pluto, it is only 19,600km away from Pluto. Charon's diameter (1,190km) is almost half that of Pluto's. That makes it the closer in size to its planet than any other moon in the solar system. Because of this, some astronomers feel that Pluto and Charon should be called a binary planet. Charon takes 6.4 Earth days to go around Pluto once and orbits the planet in such a way that it is always above the same spot on Pluto. This means if a person was standing on Pluto, Charon would never move. This also means that Charon can never be seen from the side opposite from the moon. Charon is extremely cold and is covered with water ice. |
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