\n<\/p>\n
On July 14th, 2015, the New Horizons<\/em> probe made history by accomplishing the first flyby of Pluto and its largest satellite, Charon. The stunning images this mission took of these icy worlds have helped scientists address some of the key questions about Pluto and its massive moon, which have been shrouded in mystery for decades (owing to their great distance from Earth). One of the biggest mysteries that scientists have contemplated since Charon was first discovered in 1978 is how it came together with Pluto in the first place.<\/p>\n For decades, astronomers suspected that Pluto and Charon formed through a process similar to Earth and the Moon. This theory, known as the Giant Impact Hypothesis, states that roughly 4.5 billion years ago, primordial Earth was struck by a Mars-sized body named Theia. In a new study, a team of researchers from the University of Arizona challenged this assumption and offered an alternate theory known as \u201ckiss and capture.\u201d Their findings could help scientists better understand how planetary bodies in the outer Solar System form and evolve.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The study was led by Adeene Denton, a NASA postdoctoral fellow at the University of Arizona\u2019s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). She was joined by Erik Asphaug, a Planetary Science Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE) and the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) at the University of Arizona; Robert Melikyan, an LPL Graduate Student, and Alexandre Emsenhuber, a Postdoctoral Researcher from the Space Research and Planetary Science (SRPS) at the University of Bern. The paper that describes their findings, \u201cCapture of an Ancient Charon around Pluto,\u201d was published in the journal Nature Geoscience<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n