Kiss-and-Capture Preserves an Ancient Charon Around Pluto
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Dr. Adeene Denton
Postdoctoral Researcher
Southwest Research Institute, Boulder
Pluto and its large satellite Charon form the largest binary system in the known population of trans-Neptunian objects in the outer Solar System. The system is thought to have formed through a giant impact, similar to how the Earth obtained its Moon. In this talk I will introduce a new scenario for the collisional capture of Charon, called kiss-and-capture, which finds that the inclusion of material strength in giant impact simulations alters the conditions under which Charon becomes a stable satellite. Kiss-and-capture, which keeps both bodies largely intact during and after impact, has wide-ranging implications for the geologic evolution of Pluto, Charon, and other large-mass Kuiper Belt binaries.