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Planetary science

Seeing double in the Kuiper belt

A small fraction of Kuiper-belt objects are known to be accompanied by large moons. These double worlds may have formed in the earliest days of the Solar System through comparatively gentle gravitational encounters.

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Figure 1: Pluto and its satellite Charon.

R. ALBRECHT (ESA/ESO)/NASA

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Correspondence to Daniel D. Durda.

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Durda, D. Seeing double in the Kuiper belt. Nature 420, 618–619 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/420618a

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/420618a

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