Very little sunlight is absorbed by the surface. Triton's axis of rotation is tilted degrees with respect to Neptune's axis. This causes the moon's polar and equatorial regions to be alternately pointed towards the Sun. This causes extreme seasonal changes as Triton's orientation changes. This uneven heating and cooling could account for some of the moon's curious surface features.
Triton has an extremely thin atmosphere composed mainly of nitrogen and methane. There are very few craters visible on the surface, indicating that the moon is very young and probably highly active. There are high ridges and deep valleys all over the moon's surface. Perhaps the most interesting discovery to be made by Voyager 2 was Triton's ice volcanoes.
Voyager photographed a plume of frozen material being ejected from the moon's surface. Lassell was one of 19th century England's grand amateur astronomers, using the fortune he made in the brewery business to finance his telescopes. He spotted Triton on Oct. Scientists using powerful telescopes and spacecraft have since discovered a total of 14 moons orbiting this distant, giant world.
Neptune Moons. Use Chemistry. Voyager 2 took pictures of "several geyser-like volcanic vents that were apparently spewing nitrogen gas laced with extremely fine, dark particles," according to NASA. The agency estimates the particles go as high as 5 miles 8 kilometers before flowing downwind and striking the surface. It also appears that a large portion of the surface has melted. NASA said the melting was probably due to tidal heating that began when Neptune captured Triton, which could have left the satellite liquid for at least 1 billion years.
Although no spacecraft will go by Neptune's system in the near future, computer models and higher-resolution telescopes on Earth are providing new information about Triton's history and environment. In , long-range infrared observations with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope revealed that the thin atmosphere of Triton changes with the seasons.
At the time the VLT looked at the planet, it was summer in the southern hemisphere, where the sun's warmth thickened the atmosphere.
New models of Neptune could also provide insights on Triton, such as one released in that looks at the gas giant's magnetosphere. The magnetic field appears to be particularly pronounced on one side , according to Voyager 2 data and the model, and scientists next want to figure out how this field could interact with Triton.
The Rosetta spacecraft gathered data that showed molecular nitrogen on the comet's surface in From that information, scientists are trying to figure out where the nitrogen came from and how it compares to other bodies with nitrogen in the solar system, such as Triton and Pluto.
Astrobiologists are also considering that Triton could have water under its icy surface. In addition to being the seventh-largest moon in the Solar System, it is also the only major moon that has a retrograde orbit — i.
This suggests that Triton did not form in orbit around Neptune, but is a cosmic visitor that passed by one day and decided to stay. And like most moons in the outer Solar System, Triton is believed to be composed of an icy surface and a rocky core. But unlike most Solar moons, Triton is one of the few that is known to be geologically active.
This results in cryovolcanism , where geysers periodically break through the crust and turn the surface Triton into what is sure to be a psychedelic experience! Triton was discovered by British astronomer William Lassell on October 10th, , just 17 days after the discovery of Neptune by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle.
Thirty-four years later, French astronomer Camille Flammarion named the moon Triton — after the Greek sea god and son of Poseidon the equivalent of the Roman god Neptune — in his book Astronomie Populaire.
It would be several decades before the name caught on however. In addition to being the seventh-largest moon in the Solar System, it is also more massive than all known moons in the Solar System smaller than itself combined. With no axial tilt and an eccentricity of virtually zero, the moon orbits Neptune at a distance of , km , miles.
At this distance, Triton is the farthest satellite of Neptune, and orbits the planet every 5. Unlike other moons of its size, Triton has a retrograde orbit around its host planet.
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