Vader (crater)

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Vader
Ripley Crater in Color.jpg
Photo of Charon centered on Ripley Crater. Nostromo Chasma crosses Ripley vertically. Organa Crater is at 9:00, and Vader is the dark crater at 12:00
Feature typeImpact crater
Location Charon
Coordinates 55°N15°W / 55°N 15°W / 55; -15 [1]
Discoverer New Horizons
NamingUnofficial
Eponym Darth Vader

Vader is the unofficial name given to a dark crater on Pluto's largest moon Charon. The floor of Vader is darker than the surrounding terrain, covered in the same reddish-brown dark material that covers Mordor Macula on Charon's north pole. Though Charon's surface trends darker with increasing latitude, some craters, such as Vader, interrupt this trend. [2] The crater was discovered by NASA's New Horizons space probe on its way by Pluto. It is named after the character Darth Vader from the Star Wars media franchise; the name has yet to be officially approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pluto</span> Dwarf planet

Pluto is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest known trans-Neptunian object by volume, by a small margin, but is less massive than Eris. Like other Kuiper belt objects, Pluto is made primarily of ice and rock and is much smaller than the inner planets. Pluto has roughly one-sixth the mass of Earth's moon, and one-third its volume.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charon (moon)</span> Largest natural satellite of Pluto

Charon, or (134340) Pluto I, is the largest of the five known natural satellites of the dwarf planet Pluto. It has a mean radius of 606 km (377 mi). Charon is the sixth-largest known trans-Neptunian object after Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, and Gonggong. It was discovered in 1978 at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., using photographic plates taken at the United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station (NOFS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extraterrestrial sky</span> Extraterrestrial view of outer space

In astronomy, an extraterrestrial sky is a view of outer space from the surface of an astronomical body other than Earth.

Vader may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geology of Pluto</span> Geologic structure and composition of Pluto

The geology of Pluto consists of the characteristics of the surface, crust, and interior of Pluto. Because of Pluto's distance from Earth, in-depth study from Earth is difficult. Many details about Pluto remained unknown until 14 July 2015, when New Horizons flew through the Pluto system and began transmitting data back to Earth. When it did, Pluto was found to have remarkable geologic diversity, with New Horizons team member Jeff Moore saying that it "is every bit as complex as that of Mars". The final New Horizons Pluto data transmission was received on 25 October 2016. In June 2020, astronomers reported evidence that Pluto may have had a subsurface ocean, and consequently may have been habitable, when it was first formed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nix (moon)</span> Moon of Pluto

Nix is a natural satellite of Pluto, with a diameter of 49.8 km (30.9 mi) across its longest dimension. It was discovered along with Pluto's outermost moon Hydra on 15 May 2005 by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope, and was named after Nyx, the Greek goddess of the night. Nix is the third moon of Pluto by distance, orbiting between the moons Styx and Kerberos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydra (moon)</span> Moon of Pluto

Hydra is a natural satellite of Pluto, with a diameter of approximately 51 km (32 mi) across its longest dimension. It is the second-largest moon of Pluto, being slightly larger than Nix. Hydra was discovered along with Nix by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope on 15 May 2005, and was named after the Hydra, the nine-headed underworld serpent in Greek mythology. By distance, Hydra is the fifth and outermost moon of Pluto, orbiting beyond Pluto's fourth moon Kerberos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moons of Pluto</span> Natural satellites orbiting Pluto

The dwarf planet Pluto has five natural satellites. In order of distance from Pluto, they are Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. Charon, the largest, is mutually tidally locked with Pluto, and is massive enough that Pluto and Charon are sometimes considered a binary dwarf planet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kerberos (moon)</span> Small natural satellite of Pluto

Kerberos is a small natural satellite of Pluto, about 19 km (12 mi) in its longest dimension. Kerberos is also the second-smallest moon of Pluto, after Styx. It was the fourth moon of Pluto to be discovered and its existence was announced on 20 July 2011. It was imaged, along with Pluto and its four other moons, by the New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015. The first image of Kerberos from the flyby was released to the public on 22 October 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belton Regio</span> Equatorial dark region on Pluto

Belton Regio is a prominent surface feature of the dwarf planet Pluto. It is an elongated dark region along Pluto's equator, 2,990 km (1,860 mi) long and one of the darkest features on its surface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mordor Macula</span> North polar dark region on Charon

Mordor Macula is the informal name for a large dark area about 475 km in diameter near the north pole of Charon, Pluto's largest moon. It is named after the black land called Mordor in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geology of Charon</span> Geologic structure and composition of Charon

The geology of Charon encompasses the characteristics of the surface, crust, and interior of Pluto's moon Charon. Like the geology of Pluto, almost nothing was known of Charon's geology until the New Horizons of the Pluto system on 14 July 2015. Charon's diameter is 1,208 km (751 mi)—just over half that of Pluto. Charon is sufficiently massive to have collapsed into a spheroid under its own gravity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geography of Pluto</span>

The geography of Pluto refers to the study and mapping of physical features across the dwarf planet Pluto. On 14 July 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft became the first spacecraft to fly by Pluto. During its brief flyby, New Horizons made detailed geographical measurements and observations of Pluto and its moons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vulcan Planitia</span> Major plain on Charon

Vulcan Planitia, or Vulcan Planum, is the unofficial name given to a large plain on the southern hemisphere of Pluto's moon Charon. It discovered by New Horizons during its flyby of Pluto in July 2015. It is named after the fictional planet Vulcan in the science-fiction series Star Trek. The name is not approved by International Astronomical Union (IAU) as of 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirk (crater)</span> Crater on Charon

Kirk is the unofficial name given to a small crater on Pluto's largest moon Charon. The crater was discovered by the New Horizons space probe in 2015 during its flyby of Pluto and its moons. It was named after the character James T. Kirk from the media franchise Star Trek. The crater is located in the southern hemisphere, just south of the equator, and just east of the prime meridian, near Clarke Montes, in a region that astronomers have named Vulcan Planitia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Organa (crater)</span> Crater on Charon

Organa is the informal name given to a crater on Pluto's largest moon, Charon. The crater was discovered by NASA's New Horizons space probe on its flyby of Pluto. The name was chosen as a reference to Leia Organa from the Star Wars media franchise, which keeps with the theme of naming Charon's craters after science fiction characters. Organa crater is rich in frozen ammonia, which suggests it was created very recently. This crater is located in the northern Pluto-facing hemisphere of Charon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy (Charonian crater)</span> Largest crater on Charon

Dorothy is the largest known impact basin on Pluto's moon Charon. The crater was discovered by the New Horizons space probe in 2015 during its flyby of Pluto and its moons. It was named after Dorothy Gale from the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The crater is located near Charon's north pole, and overlaps the edge of Mordor Macula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate of Pluto</span>

The climate of Pluto concerns the atmospheric dynamics, weather, and long-term trends on the dwarf planet Pluto. Five climate zones are assigned on the dwarf planet: tropics, arctic, tropical arctic, diurnal, and polar. These climate zones are delineated based on astronomically defined boundaries or sub-solar latitudes, which are not associated with the atmospheric circulations on the dwarf planet. Charon, the largest moon of Pluto, is tidally locked with it, and thus has the same climate zone structure as Pluto itself.

References

  1. "Global map of Charon" . Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  2. Grundy, W. M.; Binzel, R. P.; Buratti, B. J.; et al. (March 2016). "Surface compositions across Pluto and Charon". Science. 351 (6279): aad9189. arXiv: 1604.05368 . Bibcode:2016Sci...351.9189G. doi: 10.1126/science.aad9189 . PMID   26989260. aad9189 (2016).
  3. Wall, Mike (3 August 2015). "Vader Crater, Kirk & Spock! 'Star Wars,' 'Star Trek' Collide on Pluto Moon". Space.com.