Charon's Slow Spin Reveals a Cold Dawn for Pluto’s Largest Moon
TL;DR
Nature Communications researchers, using data from NASA’s New Horizons flyby, show Charon’s rotation slowed from about 14.3 hours to about 153 hours due to despinning. The crust was initially thicker (roughly 30–36 km) and thinned over time, compressing fault lines and creating the ridges and highlands seen today, offering a new way to infer the early orbital and thermal state of icy satellites.
- Weird Mountains on Pluto’s Largest Moon Charon Reveals a Surprising Past Gizmodo
- Early tidal despinning history recorded in the tectonics of Oz Terra, Charon Nature
- The spin of Pluto's moon, Charon, may be slowing down Phys.org
- Pluto's Moon Charon Shows Evidence Of "Despinning" – What Does This Mean? IFLScience
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