Charon’s Color: A view from New Horizon Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera

Abstract:

The Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC; Reuter et al., 2008) is part of Ralph, an instrument on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. MVIC is the color ‘eyes’ of New Horizons, observing objects using five bands from blue to infrared wavelengths. MVIC’s images of Charon show it to be an intriguing place, a far cry from the grey heavily cratered world once postulated. Rather Charon is observed to have large surface areas free of craters, and a northern polar region that is much redder than its surroundings. This talk will describe these initial results in more detail, along with Charon’s global geological color variations to put these results into their wider context. Finally possible surface coloration mechanisms due to global processes and/or seasonal cycles will be discussed.