StudyFinds on MSN4d
This is the cosmic love story between Pluto and its moon Charon
Scientists have discovered a new type of planetary collision called “kiss-and-capture,” where Pluto and proto-Charon briefly ...
Space on MSN13d
How Pluto captured its largest moon Charon with a 10-hour icy 'kiss'
Pluto may have got romantic to capture its largest moon, colliding and engaging in a passionate but icy 10 hour kiss with ...
Smithsonian Magazine on MSN19d
A Novel ‘Kiss and Capture’ Event Gave Pluto Its Largest Moon, Charon, New Study Suggests
Researchers accounted for the previously overlooked structures of the dwarf planet and moon in computer simulations of a ...
How Pluto and Charon Were Born From a Giant Collision
Recent simulations link the creation of Pluto and its moon Charon to a colossal impact, akin to the Earth-Moon origin, ...
Newsweek23d
Space: How Pluto Landed its Moon With a 'Kiss'
Pluto landed its largest moon, Charon, with a 'kiss'—overturning decades of scientific assumptions about how planetary bodies form and evolve. This is the conclusion of a new study, conducted at ...
The New York Times21d
Pluto May Have Captured Its Biggest Moon After an Ancient Dance and Kiss
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 ...
Science News23d
Pluto may have captured its moon Charon with a kiss
Pluto and Charon’s meet-cute may have started with a kiss. New computer simulations of the dwarf planet and its largest moon suggest that the pair got together in a “kiss-and-capture ...
Astronomy23d
Pluto may have ‘kissed’ Charon to capture it
New research suggests that Pluto may have acquired its most massive moon, Charon, through an ancient grazing impact, which the science team refers to as a “kiss and capture”. The study uses ...
KRDO19d
How did Pluto’s large moon Charon form? With a ‘kiss,’ scientists say
(CNN) — For decades, astronomers have tried to determine how Pluto acquired its unusually large moon Charon, which is about half the size of the dwarf planet. Now, new research suggests that ...
Local News 819d
Astronomers have for decades tried to figure out how Pluto captured its largest moon. Now, there’s a new theory
(CNN) — For decades, astronomers have tried to determine how Pluto acquired its unusually large moon Charon, which is about half the size of the dwarf planet. Now, new research suggests that ...
Salon20d
"Kiss and capture": New theory explains how Pluto captured its biggest moon
Because Charon is just over half the size of Pluto, the two bodies then began orbiting each other in a cosmic dance in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune’s orbit. However, a recent study in Nature ...
Space.com23d
How Pluto captured its largest moon Charon with a 10-hour icy 'kiss'
"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!" New ...