Charon

Source: NASA

CHARON! For starters, before you think: “CHARON? How dare she. Pluto got demoted and she said she was going to paint all the spherical moons of the *planets* of our solar system….”

You are right. BUT, I am always a supporter of the underdog. And frankly, have you seen this moon?! The information and photos we have from New Horizons are just too dang good to pass up so buckle your seat belts: to the Kuiper Belt we go. One of the most interesting things that has stuck with me about Charon has been its size in relation to it’s *ahem* dwarf planet. In terms of the moons size to its planets size, Charon is the biggest moon in our solar system. Not to be confused with Ganymede, the actual breadwinner for largest moon. When looking at Charon orbit Pluto, they’re in such close proximity, size wise, that they’re considered a double planetary system. How cool is that!!! It’s easy to look at the two bodies and think of them similarly- but they are two different worlds. They are, however, tidally locked which means that the same side is always facing one another as they orbit along. They’re a quirky little system, tilted on their side (think: Uranus) all while Pluto orbits opposite that of all the planets (except Venus + Uranus). This oversized + funky moon is more neutral than it’s -almost- twin, mostly greys and has even less of a reddish twinge to it than its counterpart. Heck, we think our very own demoted planet captured this Kuiper Belt object and took it as its own. I’m so grateful towards the New Horizons mission for giving us this information. It’s quite incredible I’ve been able to journey through our solar system’s moons with as much accuracy as possible, thanks to all the incredible dreamers, scientists, engineers, mathematicians, physicists, geologists, etc. What a time to be alive- and cheers to you, if you’ve made it this far!