A Novel 'Kiss and Capture' Event Gave Pluto Its Largest Moon, Charon, New Study Suggests

Smithsonian Magazine ^ | January 9, 2025 | Margherita Bassi

[SunkenCiv]

The proposed kiss and capture of Charon by Pluto, shown hours after the collision, at the time of separation.

Robert Melikyan and Adeene Denton

[SunkenCiv]

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

[SaveFerris]

(”kiss and capture”)

Oh yeah. I remember dating her in the 1980s. Knocked me out of my orbit too.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

Interesting mention of the tidal transfer of momentum process (although I don't think the writer calls it by name).

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[going hot]

I would love to know the size and source of the rock that caused the earth to jettison our moon off the planet.

Now that would have been a big bang.

[Sirius Lee]

"kiss and capture"

If this isn't a Cole Porter song, it should be.

[SunkenCiv]

:^) I was amused that the commuter drop-off for the DC subway is called “kiss and ride”. I remember dating her too... :^)

[gundog]

Like a really large tektite.

[SunkenCiv]

Good idea, anything goes.

[ClearCase_guy]

So ... Pluto is not a planet. But it does have 5 moons. Whatever.

[PIF]

Bogus magazine which often makes things up and misleads while omitting salient facts.

[17th Miss Regt]

Look up Theia, the small planet that supposedly smacked into earth soon after the earth formed. Probably Mars-sized. There are some online videos of simulations of this event.

[BipolarBob]

I think the prevailing theory is they started out as pen pals at first and then it got serious later.

[KarlInOhio]

Sounded like a cheesy roolmance novel.

I don't know whythe Romance Book Cover Generator put in the title twice.

[scrabblehack]

There is a theory that Pluto is an escaped moon of Neptune (their orbits cross). Maybe it was Charon who kissed and captured?

[faucetman]

They just make shite up.

[palmer]

in which each mutually orbits the other

All orbits are mutual. The reason for many large shifts in earth's climate is the sun orbiting the planets as they orbit the sun.

[Verginius Rufus]

The earth and the moon orbit around their mutual center of gravity.

Neptune's largest moon, Triton, orbits in the opposite direction as the other moons. Astronomers conjecture that it was captured by Neptune.