🌙 Moon
Charon
Pluto’s giant moon, about half as wide as Pluto itself.
- Size
- 1,200 km across, 10% as wide as Earth
- Goes round Pluto
- every 6.4 Earth days
- Discovered
- 1978, by James Christy
Did you know?
- Pluto and Charon always show each other the same face, as if locked in a slow dance.
- Its reddish north pole is stained by gas that escapes from Pluto.
Photographed or visited by
New Horizons
Nine years to Pluto, for one day of pictures.
Compare Charon with EarthSide by side, to scale, in the app
More NASA photos of CharonStraight from NASA’s image library, in the app
Explore more
All of solar system
Mercury
The smallest planet, and the closest to the Sun.
Venus
The hottest planet, hidden under thick clouds.
Earth
Our home, the only world known to have life.
Mars
The red planet, with the tallest volcano in the solar system.
Jupiter
The biggest planet, with a storm larger than Earth.
Saturn
The ringed giant, light enough to float in water.