Webb telescope detects carbon dioxide on Pluto’s largest moon

PARIS: Scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope have detected carbon dioxide on the frozen surface of Pluto´s biggest moon, Charon, for the first time, research revealed on Tuesday.

The discovery of CO2, along with another chemical hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), could shed light on the icy worlds in the mysterious outer reaches of our Solar System.

Pluto was long known as the ninth planet from the Sun. But after other similar objects were spotted in a region beyond Neptune called the Kuiper Belt, it was downgraded to dwarf planet in 2006.

The doughnut-shaped Kuiper Belt is thought to be home to millions of icy worlds.

These objects are “time capsules that enable us to understand the formation of the Solar System”, Silvia Protopapa of the Southwest Research Institute in the US state of Colorado told AFP.

Charon offers a rare glimpse into these worlds because -- unlike other Kuiper Belt objects including Pluto -- its surface is not obscured by highly volatile ices such as methane, she explained.

Protopapa is the lead author of a new study in the journal Nature Communications describing Webb´s new discoveries on the biggest of Pluto´s five moons.

Charon, which is around the width of France and half the size of Pluto, was first discovered in 1978.

When Nasa´s New Horizon spacecraft flew past Charon in 2015, it discovered the surface was mainly covered in water ice and ammonia, which are thought to give the moon its red and grey appearance.