Recent simulations link the creation of Pluto and its moon Charon to a colossal impact, akin to the Earth-Moon origin, ...

"We were definitely surprised by the 'kiss' part of kiss-and-capture. There hasn't really been a kind of impact before where ...

New study reveals Pluto and Charon’s origin: a unique "kiss and capture" collision redefines how binary systems form.

Since New Horizons' close encounter with Pluto 10 years ago, experts have come to think of the dwarf planet as much more ...

Researchers accounted for the previously overlooked structures of the dwarf planet and moon in computer simulations of a ...

Unlike Earth, where the Moon orbits the planet, Pluto and Charon orbit each other, forming a binary system that is more ...

Simulations suggest Pluto and its largest moon may have gently stuck together for a few hours before Charon settled into a ...

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.

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.

Pluto and Charon may have formed through a “kiss and capture” mechanism, with the two icy bodies colliding and becoming ...

Pluto's big moon Charon may have a different origin story than scientists suspected. New research suggests the two bodies ...

Credit: NASA/Robert Lea (created with Canva) 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 ...