Ever since NASA’s New Horizons zoom past Pluto in July, scientists and space enthusiasts here on earth saw surprising features of the dwarf world. We also discovered interesting things about its largest moon Charon, which is tidally locked to the dwarf planet, but different from its host planet. Why the two objects which always face each other are different?

Data beamed back by the NASA spacecraft portrayed Pluto as reddish, icy and mountainous world with many regions devoid of craters, while its moon Charon is flat, dull grey and rocky object. The plutoid has icy mountains, while Charon has dark and mysterious patches.

New Horizons’ data also revealed that the dwarf planet is more reflective than its natural satellite. At one side, Pluto has a large area of devoid of craters, while Charon’s craters are pretty uniform.

Surface of Pluto has volatiles, or chemical compounds that sublimate in the light coming from the sun. Its surface changes constantly due to the presence of nitrogen, methane, water and carbon monoxide. Natural events like mountains rise, crack formation and crumbling mountains occur continuously on the dwarf world. Charon is free from such happenings. The moon is free of all of these volatile components.

During the flyby or Pluto and Charon, New Horizons found something that differentiates the two worlds. The spacecraft revealed that when you fly into the Pluto’s shadow, it is visible in eclipse. At that time, sun and its light is completely black. The data from the spacecraft suggested that Charon is a completely airless world.

Scientists after studying the two objects found that in Kuiper belt, most large objects look a lot more like Pluto than they do like Charon.