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

The model accurately predicted the binary system’s orbit today, lending further confidence in its reliability. “Because Pluto is rotating rapidly prior to the collision, and because Charon ...

Pluto and Charon likely exchanged some material between ... lumpy satellites,” she said. This new model tells us how the impact may have happened but not when, which is significant, particularly ...

"Strength is just the amount of force you can apply to a material before it starts to deform, so by adding in a strength model, we allow Pluto and Charon to maintain a level of structural ...

Pluto and Charon are in a region of the outer solar system beyond Neptune called the Kuiper belt, which makes them both very rocky and icy. By including these properties in their model ...

"Pluto and Charon are different—they're smaller ... "The compelling thing about this study is that the model parameters that work to capture Charon end up putting it in the right orbit ...

However, the researchers discovered that when including the amount of rock and ice that Pluto and Charon are comprised of, the Earth-Moon model doesn’t quite work. Instead, the simulations propose ...

according to the model. After being intertwined in a lopsided rotation, the pair became unstuck and Charon, being the smaller of the two, was doomed to a near-circular orbit around Pluto.

Snapshot of Pluto and Charon during kiss-and-capture. Robert Melikyan and Adeene Denton. The study suggests that the existing model for the formation of Earth's moon doesn't perfectly apply to ...

“Strength is just the amount of force you can apply to a material before it starts to deform, so by adding in a strength model, we allow Pluto and Charon to maintain a level of structural ...

Pluto and Charon likely exchanged some material between ... lumpy satellites," she said. This new model tells us how the impact may have happened but not when, which is significant, particularly ...