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

For decades, astronomers have tried to determine how Pluto acquired its unusually large moon Charon, which is about half the ...

Since New Horizons' close encounter with Pluto 10 years ago, experts have come to think of the dwarf planet as much more ...

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

Scientists propose Pluto and its moon Charon formed through a “kiss and capture” event 4.5 billion years ago, challenging previous theories about their unique size ratio and orbital relationship.

A new theory about Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, could alter how planetary systems are taught in U.S. schools. Scientists ...

For decades, astronomers suspected that Pluto and Charon formed through a process similar to Earth and the Moon. This theory, ...

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

“Because Pluto is rotating rapidly prior to the collision, and because Charon lies mostly outside of their corotation zone, ...

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.