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

Pluto and its moon Charon may have been briefly locked together in a cosmic “kiss”, before the dwarf planet released the smaller body and recaptured it in its orbit. Charon is the largest of ...

“The only comparable system is Earth and its moon.” Charon is about 750 miles across ... left it trapped in Pluto’s orbit. Bill McKinnon, a planetary scientist at Washington University ...

As they separated and this icy kiss ended, the team thinks that Pluto would have torqued Charon into a close, higher circular orbit from which the moon would have migrated outward. "The 'kiss' in ...

Whereas a moon usually orbits a planet, 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 ...

And the new research may offer evidence for a subsurface ocean beneath Pluto’s icy crust. Charon and Earth’s moon are both a large fraction of the size of the main body they orbit, which is ...

Pluto landed its largest moon, Charon, with a 'kiss'—overturning decades ... work to capture Charon end up putting it in the right orbit," wrote paper author and University of Arizona planetary ...

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.

As they separated and this icy kiss ended, the team thinks that Pluto would have torqued Charon into a close, higher circular orbit from which the moon would have migrated outward. "The 'kiss' in ...

And the new research may offer evidence for a subsurface ocean beneath Pluto’s icy crust. Charon and Earth’s moon are both a large fraction of the size of the main body they orbit, which is ...