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Discovery Triton was discovered on Oct. 10, 1846 by British astronomer William Lassell, just 17 days after Neptune itself was discovered. Overview 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 […]
- 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."
Nov 12, 2024 · Global color mosaic of Neptune's largest moon, Triton, taken by NASA's Voyager 2 in 1989. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS ... An ambitious mission to Neptune could study both the planet and Triton ...
Feb 17, 2022 · Proposals for missions to study the ice giant planet Neptune and its mysterious moon Triton have been on NASA’s to-do list for over a decade, but nothing has happened until now. A mission to explore one of the ice giants — Uranus or Neptune — was one of the three priorities set out by the last Decadal Survey in 2010, along with Jupiter’s moon Europa and a sample return mission to Mars.
Jun 16, 2020 · The oddities of Triton could fill an almanac: As Neptune rotates, Triton orbits in the opposite direction. No other large moon in the solar system does that. And Triton’s orbit lies at an extreme tilt, offset from Neptune’s equator by 23 degrees. About three-quarters the diameter of our own Moon, Triton isn’t where it used to be, either.
Feb 13, 2020 · Trident would explore Triton, a unique and highly active icy moon of Neptune, to understand pathways to habitable worlds at tremendous distances from the Sun. NASA's Voyager 2 mission showed that Triton has active resurfacing - generating the second-youngest surface in the solar system - with the potential for erupting plumes and an atmosphere.
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Will NASA study Neptune and Triton?
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Triton is the largest moon of Neptune. In 1989, Voyager 2 flew past the moon at a distance of 40,000 km (25,000 mi), [ 7 ] and discovered several cryovolcanoes on its surface. Triton is geologically active, its surface is young and has relatively few impact craters.
