Kubrick Mons is the name given to the largest of a series of mountain peaks on Pluto's moon

Charon In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon (; grc, Χάρων) is a psychopomp, the ferryman of Hades, the Greek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the wo ...

that rise out of depressions in the Vulcan Planitia region. The feature was first recorded by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard the ''

New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research ...

'' spacecraft during a flyby on 15 July 2015.

Physical description

Kubrick Mons has a diameter of and is in height. The feature is surrounded by a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

which has a depth of below the surrounding area. It is not currently known how Kubrick Mons formed; however, there is speculation that Kubrick Mons may be a cryovolcano and the depression may be the result of a shrinking chamber of water and ammonia. this hypothesis remains unconfirmed. The mountain was named after film director

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

. Official approval of the name was announced by the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...

on 11 April 2018. It is sometimes called Charon's or more simply .

References

Extraterrestrial mountains Surface features of Charon Stanley Kubrick {{crater-stub