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 ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Credit: NASA/Robert Lea (created with Canva) New research suggests that billions of years ago, ...

The “demoted” dwarf planet Pluto and its largest moon Charon make an unusual pair, and for decades, scientists have been discussing how the binary system—in which each mutually orbits the other—came ...

Pluto may be small, but it has one of the most unusual moons in the solar system. Charon is so big compared to Pluto that the ...

The process is more complex than scientists previously thought. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Scientists have figured out why ...

The icy volcanism of Charon may be caused by its internal ocean freezing, expanding, and cracking the outer shell of the moon if it was thinner than expected. When you purchase through links on our ...

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 ...

The spacecraft New Horizons sped past Pluto and its moons on July 14, 2015, gathering data from seven onboard instruments. Shortly thereafter, it began offloading that data in a stream of digital bits ...

It was two years ago, on July 14th, 2015, that NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto — marking the first time we had ever explored this mysterious small world. The probe whizzed by within 7,750 ...

Two years ago this month, New Horizons zipped by the dwarf planet Pluto, giving humanity its first close-up look at the icy world. Though the fly-by may be long over, scientists are still working ...

Back in July 2015, NASA's New Horizons probe completed an historic flyby of the dwarf planet Pluto. Collecting over 50 gigabits of data during the encounter it took more than a year to transmit all ...

Pluto and its moon Charon may have been briefly locked together in a cosmic “kiss”, before the dwarf planet released the smaller body and recaptured it in its orbit. Charon is the largest of Pluto’s ...