Recently, using spectral analysis provided by the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have detected the presence of carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide on the surface of Charon, Pluto’s largest moon. These discoveries hint at the process in which the moon was created.
According to LiveScience, scientists have previously been unable to detect these compounds on Charon, while they have already confirmed the existence of water, ammonia, and organic compounds on its surface. The discovery of carbon dioxide was expected; scientists were actually troubled after the New Horizons mission, in 2015, to not detect any on Charon’s surface. According to Silvia Protopapa, the current interpretation of the carbon dioxide is that it comes from Charon’s inner layer, and has been exposed to the surface through millennia of cratering events. Her and colleagues concluded that the carbon dioxide is a coating over an icy subsurface.
The findings of hydrogen peroxide, however, came as a shock. According to AP News, scientists believe that it arose from the irradiation of water molecules on Charon’s surface, through a process in which water molecules are broken down into hydroxide ions. This suggests that the surface of Charon, consisting mostly of water and ice, is being altered by the Sun’s ultraviolet light and solar wind, as well as cosmic rays from beyond the Solar System.
According to CBS News, scientists have taken so much interest in these discoveries because understanding how these compounds came to be can help scientists in the future with understanding how Charon is impacted by the processes around it. They can then use this information to compare or contrast how other objects in the Solar System are impacted by these same processes.
