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.

Pluto may have got romantic to capture its largest moon, colliding and engaging in a passionate but icy 10 hour kiss with Charon billions of years ago.

Charon, its biggest of five moons, was discovered in 1978 by the U.S. Naval Observatory. At about 750 miles wide, it's half the size of Pluto — extremely large for a moon.

Charon, its biggest of five moons, was discovered in 1978 by the U.S. Naval Observatory. At about 750 miles wide, it's half the size of Pluto — extremely large for a moon.

Pluto and its moon Charon may have been briefly locked together in a cosmic “kiss”, before the dwarf planet released the smaller body and recaptured it in its orbit.

moons around some of them.” Co-author Merline adds, “If Pluto’s small moons generate debris rings from impacts on their surfaces, as we predict, it would open up a whole new ...

Charon is an important object for planetary scientists. It's the only mid-sized Kuiper Belt object that has been fully mapped, which is true thanks to New Horizons' brief flyby of Pluto and Charon ...

The icy volcanism of Charon may be caused by its internal ocean freezing, expanding, and cracking the outer shell of the moon if it was thinner than expected. When you purchase through links on ...

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — For decades, astronomers have tried to determine how Pluto acquired its unusually large moon Charon, which is about half the size of the dwarf planet.

Pluto's largest moon, Charon. (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) Labroots recently explored Saturn’s sponge-like moon, Hyperion, with its ...

Unlike most moons, Charon is almost half the size of Pluto, so they actually orbit around a point in space between them, almost like they're twin planets.

New models explain canyons on Pluto moon Internal ocean freeze modeling does not support cryovolcanism on Charon Date: February 7, 2023 Source: Southwest Research Institute Summary: In 2015, when ...