Charon is half as wide as Pluto. It's so big that the two circle a point in the space between them, like dancers holding hands.
They have locked each other in place. Pluto always shows Charon the same face, and Charon always shows Pluto the same face.
New Horizons found a dark red cap on Charon's north pole. It's made from gas escaping from Pluto, caught and stained by sunlight.
James Christy discovered Charon in 1978 by noticing a bump on blurry photos of Pluto.
If you stood here
Pluto would hang in exactly the same spot in your sky forever, never rising or setting, about 13 times wider than our full Moon.
- Width
- 1,212 km
- Goes round Pluto
- every 6.4 days
- One day
- The same: it always shows Pluto one face
- Temperature
- about −220 °C
- 70 kg on Earth weighs
- 2 kg here
