Pluto and its largest moon Charon could have come together via a 10-hour ‘kiss-and-capture’ encounter after a grazing collision

Pluto's big moon Charon may have a different origin story than scientists suspected. New research suggests the two bodies engaged in a celestial kiss and tango.

Pluto and Charon's origin story has been rewritten by a recent study, revealing they formed from a unique "kiss and capture" collision that defies traditional scientific theories. This discovery, emphasizing the structural integrity of icy worlds,

Pluto and its moon Charon's meeting may be traced to a "kiss-and-capture" collision between the two. (CN) — The question of how Pluto captured its moon Charon may have been answered, thanks to new modeling suggesting a “kiss-and-capture” scenario linked the two bodies together.

Until now, the thinking was that Pluto and Charon formed like Earth and our Moon. New research has flipped that script.

Simulations suggest Pluto and its largest moon may have gently stuck together for a few hours before Charon settled into a stable orbit around the dwarf planet

Our Moon is surprisingly massive compared to Earth, but that ratio is dwarfed if we consider Pluto and Charon. The latter is about 12 percent of the mass of Pluto and technically doesn’t orbit it. The pair of them orbit around a common center of mass outside of Pluto.

This "kiss and capture" mechanism offers a fresh perspective on planetary formation, particularly about Pluto and its largest moon Charon.