Pluto and Charon artwork 插畫檔

Artwork of the dwarf planet Pluto (left) and its largest moon Charon. Pluto and Charon are so oriented that, twice every orbit (once every 124 years), they periodically eclipse each other as each world passes between the Sun and its partner. The illustration shows Charon casting a shadow on Pluto during such an eclipse. The last time Pluto and Charon eclipsed each other was during the six-year interval from 1985 to 1990. It won't happen again until 2103. The image also shows Hydra, the outermost of Pluto's two smaller moons, which were discovered using the Hubble Space Telescope in 2005.