Scientists have discovered a new type of planetary collision called “kiss-and-capture,” where Pluto and proto-Charon briefly ...

"We were definitely surprised by the 'kiss' part of kiss-and-capture. There hasn't really been a kind of impact before where the two bodies only temporarily merge before re-separating!" ...

As the gatekeepers to the Kuiper Belt, Charon and Pluto are a unique double dwarf planet system. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it ...

The differences don’t end there—the researchers also argue that Pluto and Charon are less likely to behave like fluid during a collision. The dwarf planet and its moon “are quite small, so ...

Charon is large in size relative to Pluto, and is locked in a tight orbit with the dwarf planet. A new simulation suggests how it ended up there. By Jonathan O’Callaghan Some 4.5 billion years ...

Pluto likely acquired large moon Charon in a “kiss and capture” collision billions of years ago. It may have created a subsurface ocean on the icy dwarf planet.

Pluto and Charon hold a unique place in the hearts and minds of scientists and the public. Discovered in 1930, Pluto was identified as the ninth planet until reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006 ...

It was previously thought that Charon formed in the wake of a massive collision billions of years ago, much like how Earth's moon was born after our planet collided with a Mars-sized world dubbed ...

Charon is half the size of Pluto, “making it the largest known moon relative to its parent planet in our solar system,” NASA notes. So how did Pluto get its chonky companion? A new study ...

With Charon being half Pluto’s size, experts have struggled to explain how it ended up in the dwarf planet’s domain. Now, a team of researchers has suggested that Pluto may have secured Charon ...

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