Pluto's Moon Charon Is Home To A 'Super' Grand Canyon, Says NASA

We've see many highly detailed, usually stunning images of Pluto over past months, and now NASA is back with a similarly great photo, only this time it's of Pluto's moon Charon. As with other photos taken by New Horizons recently, the image is very detailed and high in quality, and in it we see a massive ridge etched into the moon — one so big it appears a piece of the celestial body is about to chip free.

NASA has dubbed this massive ridge a "Super Grand Canyon," one that is much longer and deeper than the Grand Canyon we marvel at on Earth. The photo you see above was taken by the New Horizons spacecraft just a handful of hours before it reached its closest point to the moon; the image was snapped on July 14, 2015.

The space agency has informally named the Super Grand Canyon the "Argo Chasma." It is located on the moon's eastern limb, says NASA, and it measures about 185 miles long in the photo. The entire canyon system, though, including the parts that aren't visible in the photo, span about 430 miles, nearly double the length of Earth's Grand Canyon.

NASA doesn't know exactly how deep the canyon system is, though it has estimated the depth could go as far down as 5.5 miles, something it bases on other images taken of Charon. The canyon also seemingly has sheer cliffs reaching several miles in height, which if this turns out to be true, will pit it against Uranus moon Miranda's Verona Rupes, which currently holds the record of tallest known cliff in the entire solar system.

SOURCE: NASA