Charon is the largest moon of the dwarf planet Pluto ... are only 12,176 miles (19,596 km) apart. Pluto and Charon are tidally locked to each other, meaning they always show the same face to ...

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

The number of planets that orbit the sun depends on what you mean by “planet,” and that’s not so easy to define ...

While Charon is currently listed as a satellite or moon by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), consideration is being given to it perhaps being classified as a dwarf planet in its own right, ...

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

"We were definitely surprised by the 'kiss' part of kiss-and-capture. There hasn't really been a kind of impact before where the two bodies only temporarily merge before re-separating!" ...

This once-in-a-generation shift is a pivotal power play in a saga that will unfold in the years and decades to come.

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.

The other four moons—Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx—are much smaller than Charon. One idea is that Pluto got its moon system when a massive object smashed into the dwarf planet. The resulting ...

“Collisional capture is probably a common process,” he said, with many other large ... visits the dwarf planet. “If Charon deposited some of its rock into Pluto, you would be able to see ...

NASA launched the New Horizons probe which would provide never-before-seen images of the dwarf planet, its moons and other objects.

Other examples of collisions are ... For example, Charon’s collision with Pluto would have raised the temperature of the the dwarf planet’s ice shell, which may have caused it to melt and ...