Pluto has an atmosphere, albeit sparse, as confirmed by the New Horizons mission that whizzed past in 2015. One advantage of the minor planet's relatively weak gravity is that its low-density ...

Whereas a moon usually orbits a planet, both Pluto and Charon orbit a point in ... of Charon in 2015 found no evidence for an atmosphere or, more specifically, an exosphere, which is a very ...

Factors that distinguish Pluto from the terrestrial and Jovian planets include its composition (ice, rock, and frozen gases), changing atmosphere, small size, comparatively large moon, and its ...

The report, published in “Nature Geoscience,” describes how the minuscule dwarf planet could lure in Charon, a space rock nearly half its size, to orbit. The authors suggest that Pluto and ...

Planitia structure on its surface. Ever since NASA's New Horizons sent back the first-ever photos of Pluto in 2015, the dwarf planet's mysterious heart-shaped region has puzzled scientists.

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Pluto may have got romantic to capture its largest moon, colliding and engaging in a passionate but icy 10 hour kiss with Charon billions of years ago. When you purchase through links on our site ...

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 ...

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 ...