{"id":196922,"date":"2024-10-02T11:29:14","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T16:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/10\/webb-telescope-unveils-new-chemical-insights-on-plutos-moon-charon"},"modified":"2024-10-02T11:29:14","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T16:29:14","slug":"webb-telescope-unveils-new-chemical-insights-on-plutos-moon-charon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/10\/webb-telescope-unveils-new-chemical-insights-on-plutos-moon-charon","title":{"rendered":"Webb Telescope Unveils New Chemical Insights on Pluto\u2019s Moon Charon"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

What secrets can Pluto\u2019s moon, Charon, reveal about the formation and evolution of planetary bodies throughout the solar system? This is what a recent study<\/a> published in Nature Communications<\/em> hopes to address as an international team of researchers led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) used NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to conduct the first-time detection of hydrogen peroxide and carbon dioxide on Charon\u2019s surface, which adds further intrigue to this mysterious moon, along with complementing previous discoveries of water ice, ammonia-bearing species, and organic materials, the last of which scientists hypothesize could explain Charon\u2019s gray and red surface colors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe advanced observational capabilities of Webb enabled our team to explore the light scattered from Charon\u2019s surface at longer wavelengths than what was previously possible, expanding our understanding of the complexity of this fascinating object,\u201d said Dr. Ian Wong<\/a>, who is a staff scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute and a co-author on the study.<\/p>\n

Detecting hydrogen peroxide is significant since it forms from the broken-up oxygen and hydrogen atoms after water ice is exposed to cosmic rays, solar wind, or solar ultraviolet light. This indicates that the Sun\u2019s activity influences surface processes so far away, with Charon being approximately 3.7 billion miles from the Sun. The researchers determined that Charon\u2019s carbon dioxide serves as a light coating on Charon\u2019s water-ice heavy surface. While the surface of Charon was studied in-depth from NASA\u2019s New Horizons mission in 2015, these new findings provide greater understanding of the physics-based processes responsible for Charon\u2019s unique surface features.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What secrets can Pluto\u2019s moon, Charon, reveal about the formation and evolution of planetary bodies throughout the solar system? This is what a recent study published in Nature Communications hopes to address as an international team of researchers led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) used NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to conduct the [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":706,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,385,48,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-evolution","category-particle-physics","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/706"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196922\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}