A 10-hour icy "kiss": new study reveals how Pluto really got its largest satellite

New research suggests that billions of years ago, Pluto may have got its largest moon, Charon, through an icy "kiss". The merger of these two space objects probably lasted 10 hours.

This theory explains how Pluto could have captured a satellite that is about half its size. It may also help scientists better understand the structural strength of cold icy worlds in the Kuiper Belt, Space.com writes.

The team of researchers believes that Pluto and Charon, located in the Kuiper belt, which is at the edge of the solar system, collided billions of years ago. Instead of mutually destroying each other, the two objects were combined as a rotating "cosmic snowman," scientists say.

According to the experts, these icy bodies separated after 10 hours but remained orbiting, forming the Pluto/Charon system we see today.

"We've found that if we assume that Pluto and Charon are bodies with material strength, Pluto can indeed capture Charon from a giant impact," said Adeene Denton, team leader of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Research Group.

According to the scientists, most planetary collision scenarios are classified as "hit and run" or "hit and merge," meaning that the "kiss and capture" option is something completely new. "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," the scientist continued.

The reason why Pluto's connection to Charon raises some doubts among scientists is the relatively small difference in size and mass between the two icy bodies. "Charon is HUGE relative to Pluto, to the point where they are actually a binary. It's half Pluto's size and 12% of its mass, which makes it much more similar to the Earth's moon than any other moon in the solar system," Adeene emphasized.

For comparison, our Moon is a quarter of the size of the Earth, while the largest moon in the solar system, Ganymede, is about 1/28th the size of its mother planet, Jupiter.

"It's a pretty big question since a bunch of other large Kuiper Belt Objects also have large moons, so it seems like this is something that happens in the Kuiper Belt with some frequency, but we don't know how or why," the experts admitted.

Since Charon could not plunge into Pluto because both objects are icy and very solid, it remained outside the so-called "co-rotation radius" of both bodies.

"We're planning to have a much closer look at this in the future to determine which conditions not only reproduce Pluto and Charon as bodies but also put Charon in the right spot, where it is today," Denton summarized.

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