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

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.

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 ...

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 ...

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.

They rotate as one body until Pluto pushes Charon out into a stable orbit. SAN ANTONIO — January 7, 2025 —A NASA postdoctoral researcher at Southwest Research Institute has used advanced ...

As they separated and this icy kiss ended, the team thinks that Pluto would have torqued Charon into a close, higher circular orbit from which the moon would have migrated outward. "The 'kiss' in ...