James Webb Telescope Spots CO2 on Pluto’s Moon Charon for the First Time Ever

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Pluto is no longer classified as a planet, it’s a dwarf planet, however, it still has five moons. Now astronomers say they have detected CO2 and other compounds on one of its moons for the first time ever.

Transcript

00:00Pluto is no longer classified as a planet, it's a dwarf planet, only 1477 miles in diameter.

00:11However, it still has 5 moons and one of them, Charon, is 754 miles across.

00:16This has caused both the moon and the dwarf planet to enter into a binary orbit, or where

00:21rather than the moon being the lone orbiter, they sort of orbit each other around a single

00:25point in space.

00:26In fact, it is this very reason that Pluto is no longer classified as a planet.

00:30And things just got weirder for Charon as well, as astronomers say they have just detected

00:34carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide there for the first time.

00:38Experts say that in the far reaches of the solar system beyond Neptune, most objects

00:42are composed of nitrogen and methane ice.

00:45The CO2 in Charon is believed to have come from deep within it, and the detection was

00:48only possible from asteroids slamming into the moon and exposing it.

00:52Still, astronomers continue to be baffled as to how the moon formed in the first place.

00:56Experts have theorized that it came into existence the same way our moon did, from a large object

01:01slamming into it with the material that was jettisoned away, eventually coalescing into

01:05an orbiting body.

01:07Still questions remain about our solar system's furthest, mysterious orbiters.

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