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Vulcan Planitia

An annotated map of Charon, with Vulcan Planitia in the southern hemisphere.
Feature type	Plain
Location	Charon
Coordinates	0°N 0°W / 0°N -0°E / 0; -0
Surface area	~400 000 km
Discoverer	New Horizons

Vulcan Planitia, /ˈvʌlkən pləˈnɪʃə/ or Vulcan Planum, is the unofficial name given to a large plain on the southern hemisphere of Pluto's moon Charon. It discovered by New Horizons during its flyby of Pluto in July 2015. It is named after the fictional planet Vulcan in the science-fiction series Star Trek. The name is not approved by International Astronomical Union (IAU) as of 2024.

Geography

Vulcan Planitia occupies much of the southern hemisphere of Charon's encounter hemisphere, the side facing the New Horizons spacecraft at closest approach. Its extent is not completely known, but it occupies at least 400,000 km (150,000 sq mi). Vulcan Planitia is separated from Oz Terra to the north by a series of tectonic scarps that rise several kilometers high, including Serenity Chasma and Mandjet Chasma. Vulcan Planitia's southern boundary, in contrast, is poorly-constrained; the plains extend well into Charon's anti-encounter hemisphere where imagery is of poorer resolution and it becomes difficult to distinguish the plains from tectonized terrain like Oz Terra. To the east, Argo Chasma resembles the bounding scarps that line the border between Vulcan Planitia and Oz Terra, though this identification remains uncertain. To the west, an arcuate trench appears to separate Vulcan Planitia from more highlands.

Within Vulcan Planitia itself, several isolated "moated" mountains rise above the surrounding plains, surrounded by depressions. These mountains are located in the eastern plains, rising roughly 2–6 km high. The most prominent of these include Kubrick Mons, standing 2.5–3 km above the surrounding plains and 3.7–4 km above its surrounding moat; and Clarke Mons, which rises to a similar height. A large irregularly-shaped unnamed depression roughly 55 km wide and 4.5 km deep sits to the far northeastern corner of Vulcan Planitia, surrounded by rough terrain. A total of seven depressions and moated mountains are located within Vulcan Planitia.

List of named features within Vulcan Planitia

The features included in this table lie within Vulcan Planitia. The more significant craters have been named after characters from Star Trek, while two mountains have been named after science-fiction authors and directors.

Geology

Vulcan Planitia is dominated by three major terrains. Smooth rolling plains occupy most of Vulcan Planitia, hosting scattered pits, troughs, fractures, and several isolated mountains. To the south, a mottled terrain with rough bumps approximately hundreds of meters in scale dominate, often blending in with the rolling plains. To the far northeast, a region of rough terrain dominated by large ridges and blocks surrounds a deep depression. In contrast to Oz Terra, Vulcan Planitia is overall geologically homogenous and less cratered, displaying no major tectonic disruptions and few large impact craters. It lies roughly 1 km below the mean elevation of Oz Terra, but 2–2.5 km below the tops of Oz Terra's crustal blocks. These traits suggest that Vulcan Planitia is younger than Oz Terra, representing a large cryovolcanically resurfaced plain. Despite this, Vulcan Planitia is still ancient; the density of cratering, which supersedes most cryovolcanic and tectonic features in the region, indicates that Vulcan Planitia is at least 4 billion years old.

References

1. "Global map of Charon". Retrieved 25 April 2018.
2. Beyer, Ross A.; Spencer, John R.; McKinnon, William B.; et al. (May 2019). "The nature and origin of Charon's smooth plains". Icarus. 323: 16–32. Bibcode:2019Icar..323...16B. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2018.12.036.
3. O’Hanlon, Larry (26 February 2019). "New map reveals geology and history of Pluto's moon Charon". GeoSpace. American Geophysical Union. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
4. Beyer, Ross A.; Spencer, John R.; McKinnon, William B.; et al. (March 2024). The Far Side of Charon (PDF). 51st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. The Woodlands, Texas, United States. 2427. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
5. ^ Schenk, Paul M.; Beyer, Ross A.; McKinnon, William B.; et al. (November 2018). "Breaking up is hard to do: Global cartography and topography of Pluto's mid-sized icy Moon Charon from New Horizons". Icarus. 315: 124–145. Bibcode:2018Icar..315..124S. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2018.06.010.
6. ^ Robbins, Stuart J.; Beyer, Ross A.; Spencer, John R.; et al. (January 2019). "Geologic Landforms and Chronostratigraphic History of Charon as Revealed by a Hemispheric Geologic Map". Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. 124 (1): 155–174. Bibcode:2019JGRE..124..155R. doi:10.1029/2018JE005684. S2CID 134425302.
7. Singer, K. N.; Greenstreet, S.; Schenk, P.; et al. (October 2020). Impactor Populations and Terrain Age Estimates from Craters on Pluto and Charon (PDF). AAS Division of Planetary Science meeting #52. Bibcode:2020DPS....5210502S. 105.02. Retrieved 27 April 2024.

v t e Charon
Geology
Geography (features)	Regions Gallifrey Mordor Oz Vulcan Mountains Kubrick Mons Chasms Caleuche Chasma Mandjet Chasma Nostromo Chasma Serenity Chasma Craters Dorothy Kirk Nasreddin Organa Pirx Ripley Vader
Astronomy	Discovery James Christy NOFS General Double planet Moons of Pluto Kuiper belt Trans-Neptunian object
Related	In mythology In fiction

• Surface features of Charon
• Star Trek
• Extraterrestrial plains