[76][77] Another concept, involving a flyby, was formally proposed in 2019 as part of NASA's Discovery Program under the name Trident.[78]. Triton has a considerably and unusually high albedo, reflecting 60–95% of the sunlight that reaches it, and it has changed slightly since the first observations. A new mission competing for selection under NASA's Discovery Program would try to untangle the mysteries of Neptune's strange moon Triton. It contains depressions 30–40 km in diameter. It shares many similarities with Pluto, the best known world of the Kuiper Belt.Like our own moon, Triton is locked in synchronous rotation with Neptune―one side faces the planet at all times. Triton rotates once on its axis as it orbits the planet. [k] Also, with a diameter 5.5% that of Neptune, it is the largest moon of a gas giant relative to its planet in terms of diameter, although Titan is bigger relative to Saturn in terms of mass. During its 1989 flyby, Voyager 2 also found Triton has active geysers, making it one of the few geologically active moons in our solar system. This implies that Triton contains more rock in its interior than the icy satellites of Saturn and Uranus. The vast majority of surface features on Triton are endogenic—the result of internal geological processes rather than external processes such as impacts. Dr. Lori Glaze [45] This is colder than Pluto's average equilibrium temperature of 44 K (−229.2 °C). Europa and Io have higher densities. [7] Voyager 2 was able to study only about 40% of its surface, and future missions have been proposed to revisit the Neptune system with a focus on Triton. Titan is far colder than Earth, but of all the places in the solar system, Titan is the only place besides Earth known to have liquids in the form of rivers, lakes and seas on its surface. However, the strong obliquity tides are believed to generate enough additional heat to accomplish this and produce the observed signs of recent surface geological activity. Humanity's first and (so far) last visit to the outermost giant planet in our solar system was a monumental event for scientists and the public alike. To be gravitationally captured by a planet, a passing body must lose sufficient energy to be slowed down to a speed less than that required to escape. [7], In 1997, observations from Earth were made of Triton's limb as it passed in front of stars. [3][12] At 2,710 kilometres (1,680 mi)[6] in diameter, it is the seventh-largest moon in the Solar System, the only satellite of Neptune massive enough to be in hydrostatic equilibrium and the second-largest planetary moon in relation to its primary, after Earth's Moon. [44] An upper limit in the low 40s (K) can be set from vapor pressure equilibrium with nitrogen gas in Triton's atmosphere. The name was first proposed by Camille Flammarion in his 1880 book Astronomie Populaire,[20] and was officially adopted many decades later. Naiad and Thalassa race around the ice giant in odd orbits seemingly to avoid each other. Lassell rejected his previous claim of discovery when he found that the orientation of the supposed rings changed when he rotated his telescope tube; see p. 9 of Smith & Baum, 1984. It shares many similarities with Pluto, the best known world of the Kuiper Belt. NASA's Voyager 2―the only spacecraft to fly past Neptune and Triton―found surface temperatures of -391degrees Fahrenheit (-235 degrees Celsius). Neptune's moon Triton has some unique properties among the moons of the solar system, which could make it an interesting location for a space colony. Site Manager: The impact craters observed are concentrated almost entirely in Triton's leading hemisphere. [44], The high plains found on Triton's eastern hemisphere, such as Cipango Planum, cover over and blot out older features, and are therefore almost certainly the result of icy lava washing over the previous landscape. Social Media Lead: The result will be a ring system. The 40% of Triton's surface imaged by Voyager 2 revealed blocky outcrops, ridges, troughs, furrows, hollows, plateaus, icy plains and few craters. Water ice comprises 15–35% and frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice) the remaining 10–20%. Triton is named after the son of Poseidon (the Greek god comparable to the Roman Neptune). Triton is relatively flat; its observed topography never varies beyond a kilometre. Triton is the largest natural satellite of the planet Neptune, and the first Neptunian moon to be discovered. Lassell did so and discovered Triton eight days later. [59] Although commonly termed "cryovolcanic", this nitrogen plume activity is distinct from Triton's larger scale cryovolcanic eruptions, as well as volcanic processes on other worlds, which are powered by internal heat. That inclination is currently 130°; Triton's orbit is now near its maximum departure from coplanarity with Neptune's. [73] Data from the approach of Voyager 2 to Neptune on August 25, 1989, led to a more accurate estimate of Triton's diameter (2,706 km). Exploring it for subsurface water is a difficult task for many reasons—one of them being that we need to devise a way to look for life without potentially destroying it—but before we give up on the possibility of extraterrestrial life in our solar system, Triton belongs on the shortlist. Overall, the environment sounds unfriendly to life as we know it on earth, because of the magnetosphere and the cold. Triton is the largest natural satellite of the planet Neptune, and the first Neptunian moon to be discovered. Triton is unique among all large moons in the Solar System for its retrograde orbit around its planet (i.e. As Neptune orbits the Sun, Triton's polar regions take turns facing the Sun, resulting in seasonal changes as one pole, then the other, moves into the sunlight. [33], Triton's surface is covered with a transparent layer of annealed frozen nitrogen. [14] These faults with parallel ridges expelled from the interior cross complex terrain with valleys in the equatorial region. Triton has a density about twice that of water. The next full Moon will peak after midnight on Wednesday morning, Sept. 2, 2020, The Moon will appear full for about three days around this time, from Monday evening through Thursday morning. The mean density is 2.061 g/cm3,[6] reflecting a composition of approximately 15–35% water ice.[7]. [16][17] Lassell also claimed for a period[h] to have discovered rings. 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