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

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 Pluto and Charon hit, they may have stuck together, rotating through space as one unit until they pushed against each other, according to a new study, sending the moon into a stable orbit.

Most moons orbit their planets, but Pluto and Charon are different—they revolve around a point in space between them! 🔄 Why does this happen, and what did NASA’s New Horizons mission reveal about ...

They rotate as one body until Pluto pushes Charon out into a stable orbit. "Most cosmic collisions are what we call a hit-and-run, when an impactor hits a planet and keeps going," Denton continued.

Because Charon couldn't sink into Pluto in this scenario, it remained beyond the so-called "co-rotation radius" of both bodies. As a result, it could not rotate as fast as Pluto, which meant the ...

While the moon clearly orbits Earth, Pluto and Charon orbit each other. “Charon is HUGE relative to Pluto, to the point where they are actually a binary,” Denton explains to Space.com’s ...

Because Charon couldn't sink into Pluto in this scenario, it remained beyond the so-called "co-rotation radius" of both bodies. As a result, it could not rotate as fast as Pluto, which meant the ...

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 ...