Pluto and Charon actually form a binary system. 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 ...

In a nutshell Scientists have discovered a new type of planetary collision called “kiss-and-capture,” where Pluto and proto-Charon briefly connected and spun together before separating into their ...

These bodies separated relatively quickly but remained orbitally linked to create the Pluto/Charon system we see today ... point where they are actually a binary," Denton explained.

Pluto can be thought of as being part of a binary system with its biggest satellite, Charon (pictured). Scientists have long thought that this system formed as the result of a collision between ...

Previously, scientists thought that the binary system formed as the result of a collision between two proto-bodies, with much of proto-Charon’s material sloshing over to proto-Pluto. The new ...

Pluto seemed hopelessly ... farthest reaches of the solar system: a cosmic kiss that started Pluto’s extremely long-term relationship with its largest moon, Charon. It started with a collision ...

Dwarf planet Pluto and our Earth are the only two worlds in our solar system with very large moons. These may have come about by a "kiss and capture" process, which preserves a moon's large size.

According to a recent YouGov poll, 35% of Americans think Pluto is not a planet. But they are all wrong—kind of. To get to ...

The number of planets that orbit the sun depends on what you mean by “planet,” and that’s not so easy to define ...

Jan. 7, 2025 — 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 ...

Consequently, a proposal was once put forward (and later abandoned) that the Pluto-Charon system should be classified as a “dwarf-double planet” — a binary (two) satellite system where both objects ...