"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!" ...

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

Charon is unusual because it is the largest moon in the solar system compared with its parent body. In fact, Charon and Pluto are so similar in size that they are considered a double dwarf planet ...

Pluto and Charon likely exchanged some material between each other but didn't lose a lot of material to the solar system. Pluto is bigger and started and ended up with much more rock than ice ...

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.

The new theory suggests that billions of years ago, Pluto and Charon collided in the far reaches of the outer solar system. Rather than obliterating each other, the two bodies joined together in a ...

Billions of years ago, in the icy outskirts of the solar system, a dramatic collision forged the unusual pairing of Pluto and its moon, Charon. This celestial dance defied expectations ...

But these theories didn’t account for the fact that Pluto and Charon may have more structural integrity as icy, rocky bodies on the frigid edge of the solar system. “Pluto and Charon are ...

Pluto-Charon Formation Scenario Mimics Earth-Moon ... Dec. 19, 2024 — New studies offer a clearer picture of how the outer solar system formed and evolved based on analyses of trans-Neptunian ...

Pluto and Charon are smaller and colder ... t rely on the high levels of radioactivity present in the very early solar system, which has been a challenging constraint for previous models.

Pluto, considered the ninth planet in our solar system until it was reclassified ... impact that broke off the largest of its five moons, Charon. Because Charon is just over half the size of ...

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 Pluto and ...