Mordor Macula

Mordor is the dark area
Mordor Macula is located at Charon's north pole.

Mordor /ˈmɔːrdɔːr/ is a large dark area about 475 km in diameter near the north pole of Charon, Pluto's largest moon.[1][2] It is named after the shadow lands in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, which it strongly resembles in shape. The name is not official; the discovery team has been using the name informally and may submit it to the IAU.[3]

It is not currently known what Mordor is. It may be frozen gases captured from Pluto's escaping atmosphere, a large impact basin, or both.[4]

References

  1. Nemiroff, Robert; Bonnell, Jerry (17 July 2015). "APOD: 2015 July 17  Charon". Astronomy Picture of the Day. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  2. "NASA unveils historic, high-resolution Pluto, Charon, and Hydra photos from New Horizons mission". Extremetech.com. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  3. Charon Comes into Focus in New Horizons' Latest Photos, Article from Wired.
  4. Nola Taylor Redd. "Mystery Solved? Why Pluto's Big Moon Charon Has a Red Pole". SPACE.com. Retrieved 30 July 2015.


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