{ "id": "ep736sd38b", "slug": "mandjet-chasma", "title": "Mandjet Chasma", "updated": "2026-10-21", "topic_path": [ { "id": "places", "label": "Places and geography", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/places" }, { "id": "places.extraterrestrial", "label": "Extraterrestrial places", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/places.extraterrestrial" }, { "id": "places.extraterrestrial.surface-features", "label": "Planetary surfaces and named features", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/places.extraterrestrial.surface-features" }, { "id": "places.extraterrestrial.surface-features.pluto-charon-features", "label": "Pluto and Charon surface features", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/places.extraterrestrial.surface-features.pluto-charon-features" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.nongeo.nodate.places.extraterrestrial.surface-features.pluto-charon-features", "label": "Non-geographic · Not dated: Pluto and Charon surface features", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.nongeo.nodate.places.extraterrestrial.surface-features.pluto-charon-features", "path": [ { "id": "geo.nongeo", "label": "Non-geographic", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.nongeo" }, { "id": "geo.nongeo.nodate", "label": "Non-geographic · Not dated", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.nongeo.nodate" }, { "id": "geo.nongeo.nodate.places", "label": "Places and geography", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.nongeo.nodate.places" }, { "id": "geo.nongeo.nodate.places.extraterrestrial", "label": "Extraterrestrial places", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.nongeo.nodate.places.extraterrestrial" }, { "id": "geo.nongeo.nodate.places.extraterrestrial.surface-features", "label": "Planetary surfaces and named features", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.nongeo.nodate.places.extraterrestrial.surface-features" }, { "id": "geo.nongeo.nodate.places.extraterrestrial.surface-features.pluto-charon-features", "label": "Pluto and Charon surface features", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.nongeo.nodate.places.extraterrestrial.surface-features.pluto-charon-features" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Mandjet Chasma is a 385 km diameter canyon (chasma) on Charon, Pluto's largest moon, named for the Egyptian solar boat of Ra; IAU-approved 2018, at least 450 km long and 5–7 km deep, part of Charon's extensional tectonic belt.", "snippet": "Mandjet Chasma is a 385 km diameter canyon (chasma) on Charon, Pluto's largest moon, named for the Egyptian solar boat of Ra; IAU-approved 2018, at least 450 km long and 5–7 km deep, part of Charon's extensional tectonic belt.", "node": "places.extraterrestrial.surface-features.pluto-charon-features", "markdown": "# Mandjet Chasma\n\n**Mandjet Chasma** is a large canyon system, or chasma, on [Charon](https://www.edgepedia.org/charon-moon), Pluto's largest moon, named for the Egyptian boat that carries the sun god Ra across the sky in the daytime. The International Astronomical Union adopted the name on April 11, 2018.[1](https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/15733)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Target and type | Chasma (canyon) on Charon, feature ID 15733 in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature[1](https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/15733) |\n| Size | IAU diameter 385 km; geological mapping gives a length of at least 450 km and a typical width of 30 km[1](https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/15733) • [2](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5599803/) |\n| Location | Centered at 4.80° N, 294.40° E (planetocentric, east-positive), spanning latitudes from −4.50° to 10.60°[1](https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/15733) |\n| Depth | Walls plunge 5–7 km from the surrounding plains to the floor; a Science report describes it as fault bounded and reaching about 7 km deep[2](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5599803/) • [3](https://www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagazine/18_march_2016?pg=103) |\n| Name origin | Egyptian boat that carries the sun god Ra across the sky in the daytime; ethnicity listed as Egypt[1](https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/15733) |\n| Approval | Adopted by the IAU on April 11, 2018[1](https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/15733) |\n\n## Discovery and identification\n\nMandjet Chasma was not identified in the first [New Horizons](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-horizons) geologic descriptions because it lacks a sharp topographic rim. It emerged from initial stereoscopic topographic analysis published by Jeff Moore and colleagues in 2016: its rim is a gentle slope, with the walls transitioning from the surrounding plains before plunging 5–7 km to the floor.[2](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5599803/) The Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on New Horizons captured a perspective view of the chasma looking westward toward Charon's limb, in which Mandjet extends from the lower left of the frame to the limb at the upper right; the scarp south of it bounds the smooth plains of Vulcan Planum.[2](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5599803/)\n\n## Setting in Charon's tectonic belt\n\nMandjet lies within the belt of extensional tectonic features that crosses Charon's northern terrain, Oz Terra. A 2017 modeling study grouped Mandjet, Macross, and Serenity chasmata, and possibly [Argo Chasma](https://www.edgepedia.org/argo-chasma), as a global-scale assemblage of intermittent chasmata following a similar trend, and argued that contraction and expansion episodes in Charon's history may have provided the extensional environment needed to form such a belt.[4](https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/468/1/1056/3061365) The roughly east-west alignment of the major chasmata implies north-south extension across the structural belt, and the extension is inferred to be ancient, up to about 4 billion years, based on the superposition of many craters and the resurfaced units of Vulcan Planum, which bury the rift flanks.[2](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5599803/)\n\n## Contribution to Charon's extension\n\nThe rift geometry of Serenity and Mandjet Chasmata allows an estimate of the crustal extension across them. Assuming the bounding normal faults dip steeply, about 60°, the rift depth approximates the extension across it. Taking Serenity Chasma as 300 km long with a minimum depth of 3 km and Mandjet as 450 km long with a depth of 5 km, the two together represent an areal increase of about 3,000 km², an areal strain of roughly 0.3% over the northern half of Charon's encounter hemisphere.[2](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5599803/) Adding the 23 other largest scarps in Oz Terra pushes the minimum areal strain estimate to about 1%, with the four longest structures, including Mandjet's 450 km, contributing 46% of the extensional area; the authors link this early strong extension to the apparently cryovolcanic resurfacing of Vulcan Planum to the south.[2](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5599803/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Mandjet Chasma, Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, USGS Astrogeology Science Center](https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/15733)\n2. [Beyer, R. A. and colleagues (2017). Charon tectonics. Icarus (PMC5599803)](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5599803/)\n3. [Science Magazine, 18 March 2016 (The Geology of Pluto and Charon)](https://www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagazine/18_march_2016?pg=103)\n4. [Desch, S. J. and Neveu, M. (2017). Contraction/expansion history of Charon with implications for its planetary-scale tectonic belt. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 468, 1056](https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/468/1/1056/3061365)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Places and geography › Extraterrestrial places › Planetary surfaces and named features › Pluto and Charon surface features*\n\n*Initially written Oct 21, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/mandjet-chasma", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/mandjet-chasma.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Mandjet Chasma\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/mandjet-chasma. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Mandjet Chasma](https://www.edgepedia.org/mandjet-chasma)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/mandjet-chasma](https://www.edgepedia.org/mandjet-chasma). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Mandjet Chasma\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/mandjet-chasma. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Mandjet Chasma is a 385 km diameter canyon on Charon, Pluto's largest moon, named for the Egyptian solar boat of Ra; IAU-approved 2018, at least 450 km long and 5–7 km deep, part of Charon's extensional tectonic belt." }