Pluto likely acquired large moon Charon in a “kiss and capture” collision billions of years ago. It may have created a subsurface ocean on the icy dwarf planet.

"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!"

New study reveals Pluto and Charon’s origin: a unique "kiss and capture" collision redefines how binary systems form.

Researchers accounted for the previously overlooked structures of the dwarf planet and moon in computer simulations of a celestial 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's origin story has been rewritten by a recent study, revealing they formed from a unique "kiss and capture" collision that defies traditional scientific theories. This discovery, emphasizing the structural integrity of icy worlds,

“Because Pluto is rotating rapidly prior to the collision, and because Charon lies mostly outside of their corotation zone, it is able to ‘push’ Charon off, and Charon starts to slowly migrate out,” first author Dr. Adeene Denton, a planetary scientist from the University of Arizona, told The Guardian.

Unlike Earth, where the Moon orbits the planet, Pluto and Charon orbit each other, forming a binary system that is more similar to the Earth-moon system than any other moon in the solar system.