Pluto might have acquired its largest moon following a primordial waltz and embrace.

Around 4.5 billion years ago, Pluto, the dwarf planet, encountered a companion in a sudden and remarkable event. For a fleeting moment – likely just a few hours – they twirled together in a cosmic embrace, performing a graceful do-si-do before drifting apart. This celestial dance ultimately led to the formation of Pluto and its five moons, which now orbit the sun in harmony.

For many years, astronomers have been curious about the origin of Charon, the largest moon of Pluto, and its orbit around the dwarf planet. A recent study released on Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience proposed a potential series of events that could explain this intriguing phenomenon.

"Adeene Denton, a planetary scientist from the University of Arizona who spearheaded the research, remarked, 'What makes Pluto and Charon particularly fascinating is that Charon is half the size of Pluto. The only similar example we have is the Earth and its moon.'"

Charon measures approximately 750 miles in width, whereas Pluto has a diameter of nearly 1,500 miles. This size ratio indicates that several traditional theories regarding moon formation may not apply, such as the ideas that Charon originated from debris surrounding Pluto or was gravitationally captured by it. Might Charon's presence be better accounted for by a collision scenario similar to the one thought to have created Earth's moon?

According to Erik Asphaug, a planetary scientist from the University of Arizona and a co-author of the study, the dimensions of Pluto and Charon posed challenges in understanding why they "didn't simply combine like two droplets of liquid," which would be the expected result in such a cataclysmic situation.

Pluto and Charon reside in the Kuiper belt, an area in the outer solar system located past Neptune, characterized by its rocky and icy composition. By incorporating these features into their model, the research team formulated a scenario where the two celestial bodies collided and became trapped together without actually merging.

If Charon collided wi