Whereas a moon usually orbits a planet, both Pluto and Charon orbit a point in space between them — their common center of mass. The other four moons in the system — Styx, Nix, Kerberos and ...

In fact, Charon is so large compared to its host world that it and Pluto actually orbit a common center of mass (or "barycenter") that is outside the surface of Pluto itself. This peculiar mass ...

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 ...

Pluto has five moons, but Charon stands out from the rest ... “A dwarf planet is an object in orbit around the sun that is large enough to pull itself into a nearly round shape but has not ...

As they separated and this icy kiss ended, the team thinks that Pluto would have torqued Charon into a close, higher circular orbit from which the moon would have migrated outward. "The 'kiss' in ...