Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Credit: NASA/Robert Lea ...

New research suggests that billions of years ago, Pluto may have captured its largest moon, Charon, with a very brief icy "kiss." The theory could explain how the dwarf planet (yeah, we wish Pluto was ...

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. Now, new research suggests that Pluto and Charon ...

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. By Jonathan O’Callaghan Some 4.5 billion years ago, ...

A full view of Pluto's crescent, captured by NASA's New Horizons team on July 14, 2015, as the spacecraft looked back at Pluto toward the sun. (NASA) (CN) — The question of how Pluto captured its moon ...

Scientists have discovered carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide on the surface of Charon, Pluto's largest moon, offering clues about the origins of the space rock and other celestial objects in the ...

(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. Now, new research suggests that Pluto and ...

In a paper published today in Nature, a team of U.S. scientists led by Dr. S. Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), concludes that two newly discovered small moons of Pluto were very ...

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 the ...

This composite image of Pluto, right, and Charon, its largest moon, showcases photos captured by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015. Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI Unlike how scientists believe ...

For the same reason a glass bottle filled with water shatters when left to freeze, ice may have split Pluto's moon Charon wide open. Ice expands when it freezes. This simple fact of physics has ...