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

Pluto was identified in 1930, but by 1994, it was still little more than a blurry pixelated smudge on astronomers’ screens. Today, we marvel at its icy plains, towering mountains, and stunningly ...

Pluto and its largest moon Charon could have come together via a 10-hour “kiss-and-capture” encounter after a grazing ...

A researcher has used advanced models that indicate that the formation of Pluto and Charon may parallel that of the Earth-Moon system. Both systems include a moon that is a large fraction of the size ...

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

Billions of years ago, two icy worlds—Pluto and Chron—collided in the farthest reaches of our solar system. But rather than ...

When manipulated, they reveal a wealth of scientific information. This image uses 'false-colour' to show how the geology of Pluto's surface varies. It reveals how much light is reflected by ...

Combining existing knowledge of earth science and geology as well as 2015 findings about Pluto’s complex geology, they modeled all the factors using SPHLATCH, which is an open source code that ...

Overturning decades of assumptions about how Charon formed, researchers have revealed an entirely new form of cosmic collision.

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 ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. New research suggests that billions of years ago, Pluto may have captured its largest moon, ...