and potentially led to the formation of Pluto's smaller moons — Nix, Styx, Kerberos, and Hydra. Bill McKinnon, a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, praised the theory ...

It might also have resulted in the formation of Pluto’s four other known moons — Nix, Styx, Kerberos and Hydra — which are tiny compared with Charon and were glimpsed when NASA’s New ...

Scientists have been contemplating Pluto’s moons for years. The other four moons—Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx—are much smaller than Charon. One idea is that Pluto got its moon system when a ...

both Pluto and Charon orbit a point in space between them — their common center of mass. The other four moons in the system — Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra — orbit both Pluto and Charon.

New research suggests that billions of years ago, Pluto may have captured its largest moon, Charon, with a very brief icy "kiss." The theory could explain how the dwarf planet (yeah, we wish Pluto ...

New research suggests Pluto may have had a “kiss” with its largest moon billions of years ago in a harmless collision. The report, published in “Nature Geoscience,” describes how the ...

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 ...

This composite image of Pluto, right, and Charon, its largest moon, showcases photos captured by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015. Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI Unlike how scientists ...

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs. Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, has fascinated astronomers for decades with its unique ...

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 ...

While Charon is currently listed as a satellite or moon by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), consideration is being given to it perhaps being classified as a dwarf planet in its own right, ...