NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has made an exciting discovery on Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, detecting traces of carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide on its surface for the first time. Charon, about half the size of Pluto, was previously known to be covered in water ice, as revealed by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft in 2015. However, Webb’s powerful infrared capabilities provided new insights into the moon’s chemical composition.
The presence of hydrogen peroxide may result from radiation interacting with water molecules on Charon’s surface, while carbon dioxide could emerge after surface impacts. This discovery, published in Nature Communications, could shed light on Charon’s origins and offer clues about the composition of other distant celestial bodies in the Kuiper Belt.
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Although Pluto and its moons are located over 3 billion miles from the sun, making them too cold to support life, the new findings are key to understanding the evolution of such icy worlds.
