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.

With Charon being half Pluto’s size, experts have struggled to explain how it ended up in the dwarf planet’s domain. Now, a team of researchers has suggested that Pluto may have secured Charon ...

The reason Pluto's relationship with Charon has been challenging to scientists is because of the relatively small difference in size and mass between the two icy bodies. "Charon is HUGE relative ...

Pluto has a mass of 1.3 x 10 22 kilograms and a diameter of 1,477 miles (2,377 kilometers), whereas Charon has a mass of 1.6 x 10 21 kg and a diameter of 753 miles (1,212 km). The two objects are ...

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 ...

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

The reason Pluto's relationship with Charon has been challenging to scientists is because of the relatively small difference in size and mass between the two icy bodies. "Charon is HUGE relative ...

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 ...

With Charon being half Pluto’s size, experts have struggled to explain how it ended up in the dwarf planet’s domain. Now, a team of researchers has suggested that Pluto may have secured Charon ...

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 ...

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