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Plot 1 is viewed from the north ecliptic pole, to scale. Plots 2 to 4 are third-angle projections at 20% scale. In the SVG file, hover over a trajectory or orbit to highlight it and its associated launches and flybys. Voyager 2 is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, as a part of the Voyager program.
- Discovery
- Overview
- How Triton Got Its Name
Triton was discovered on Oct. 10, 1846 by British astronomer William Lassell, just 17 days after Neptune itself was discovered.
Triton is the largest of Neptune's 13 moons. It is unusual because it is the only large moon in our solar system that orbits in the opposite direction of its planet's rotation―a retrograde orbit. Scientists think Triton is a Kuiper Belt Object captured by Neptune's gravity millions of years ago. It shares many similarities with Pluto, the best know...
Triton is named after the son of Poseidon (the Greek god comparable to the Roman Neptune). Until the discovery of the second moon Nereid in 1949, Triton was commonly known as simply "the satellite of Neptune."
High-resolution view of Triton's surface from Voyager 2 On its closest approach to Triton on August 25, 1989, Voyager snapped several high-resolution mosaics. Triton is considered to be a Kuiper belt object that was captured into Neptune orbit, an event that would have heated it and altered its surface through cryovolcanism.
The new finding -- Voyager's last hurrah in its journey past the planets -- augments Triton's emerging reputation as the most perplexing of all the dozens of moons Voyager 1 and 2 have explored. Voyager's camera captured the eruption shooting dark particles high into Triton's thin atmosphere on August 24 from distance of 99,920 kilometers (about 62,000 miles).
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Feb 27, 2023 · Monday, February 27, 2023. Four hours and six seconds after they had been taken at Neptune, the images from Voyager 2 reached Earth in August 1989, and they showed something weird. Triton, a large moon that orbits Neptune backwards, opposite the direction that most of the other moons in the solar system do, had some dark splotches on its cold ...
Aug 26, 2019 · Left: Voyager 2 image of Triton from 330,000 miles away. Right: Voyager 2 image of Triton’s south polar region – dark areas may be volcanic ice plumes. Left: Image of Neptune’s dark rings, with the planet intentionally overexposed. Right: Parting shot of Neptune (at top) and Triton taken three days after Voyager 2’s flyby. Following its ...
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Neptune's largest moon Triton, is seen in this mosaic of images captured by Voyager 2 during the only visit thus far to the Neptune system. Triton is one of only three objects in the Solar System known to have a nitrogen-dominated atmosphere (the others are Earth and Saturn's giant moon, Titan).
