Charon
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Charon is almost half the size of Pluto. The little moon is so big that Pluto and Charon are sometimes referred to as a double dwarf planet system. The distance between them is 19,640 km (12,200 miles).Charon's orbit around Pluto takes 6.4 Earth days, and one Pluto rotation (a Pluto day) takes 6.4 Earth days. Charon neither rises nor sets, but hovers over the same spot on Pluto's surface, and the same side of Charon always faces Pluto -- this is called tidal locking. Compared with most of the planets and moons, the Pluto-Charon system is tipped on its side, like Uranus. Pluto's rotation is retrograde: it rotates backwards, from east to west (Uranus and Venus also have retrograde rotations).
Parent Object: Pluto
Changing Data
- Rises:
- Sets:
- Apparent Magnitude:
- Illumination:
- %
- Size (")
- Distance in light minutes:
- Distance in miles:
- 0
- Distance in AU:
Orbital Data
- Rotational Period:
- Orbital Period:
- Periapsis:
- 0.000 * 100 km
- Apoapsis:
- 0.000 * 100 km
- Epoch:
- Inclination:
- °
- Semi-Major Axis:
- 0.000 * 100 km
- Orbit Circumference:
- 0.000 * 100 km
- Eccentricity:
- Ascending Node:
- °
- Axial Tilt:
- °
- Albedo:
- Color BV:
- Color UV:
- Equatorial Diameter:
- 0.000 * 100 km
- Equatorial Circumference:
- 0.000 * 100 km
- Surface Area:
- 0.000 * 100 km2
- Surface Gravity:
- m/s2
- Surface Temperature:
- Mass:
- 0.000 * 100 kg
- Volume:
- 0.00000 * 100 km3
- Density:
- g/cm3
- Absolute Magnitude: