Dorothy is the largest known impact basin on Pluto's moon Charon. The crater was discovered by the New Horizons space probe in 2015 during its flyby of Pluto and its moons. It was named after Dorothy Gale from the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.[1] The crater is located near Charon's north pole, and overlaps the edge of Mordor Macula.
 Dorothy is the largest crater on Charon, appearing in the upper-right of this image. | |
| Feature type | Central-peak impact crater |
|---|---|
| Location | Oz Terra, Charon |
| Coordinates | 58°30′N 40°36′E / 58.5°N 40.6°E[1] |
| Diameter | 261 km |
| Depth | 6 km |
| Discoverer | New Horizons |
| Eponym | Dorothy Gale |
At roughly ~250 km wide, Dorothy is a complex crater with a ~4 km tall central peak. Despite bordering the dark deposits of Mordor Macula, the dark material does not appear to cover the floor of Dorothy, interrupting the roughly circular boundary of Mordor Macula.[2]
See also
edit- List of geological features on Charon
- Burney (crater) – Multi-ring impact basin on Pluto
- Dorothy (Venusian crater)
References
edit- ^ a b "Dorothy (Charonian crater)". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.
- ^ 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.
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