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.

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.

If Charon hit Pluto at a relatively sedate speed of about 2,000 miles per hour — 10 times as slow as the Earth’s moon-forming impact — the two would have remained in contact for about 10 ...

Scientists stunned after learning Pluto and its biggest moon collided billions of years ago: ‘Raises a lot of interesting questions’ By Alex Mitchell Published Jan. 8, 2025, 3:08 p.m. ET ...

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 landed its largest moon, Charon, with a 'kiss'—overturning decades of scientific assumptions about how planetary bodies form and evolve. This is the conclusion of a new study, conducted at ...

All four of Pluto’s moons are believed to have formed when Pluto and another planet-sized body collided in the early history of our solar system. Earth’s Moon may have formed the same way.