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 may have formed through a “kiss and capture” mechanism, with the two icy bodies colliding and becoming temporarily stuck together, spinning in a cosmic dance before separating into two objects that are forever bound in orbit,

Overturning decades of assumptions about how Charon formed, researchers have revealed an entirely new form of cosmic collision.