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Triton is the largest natural satellite of the planet Neptune. It is the only moon of Neptune massive enough to be rounded under its own gravity and hosts a thin, hazy atmosphere. Triton orbits Neptune in a retrograde orbit—revolving in the opposite direction to the parent planet's rotation—the only large moon in the Solar System to do so.
The geology of Triton encompasses the physical characteristics of the surface, internal structure, and geological history of Neptune's largest moon Triton. With a mean density of 2.061 g/cm 3 , [ 1 ] Triton is roughly 15-35% water ice by mass; Triton is a differentiated body, with an icy solid crust atop a probable subsurface ocean and a rocky ...
In order of distance from Neptune, the regular moons are Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea, Larissa, Hippocamp, and Proteus. All but the outer two are within Neptune-synchronous orbit (Neptune's rotational period is 0.6713 day or 16 hours [20]) and thus are being tidally decelerated. Naiad, the closest regular moon, is also the second smallest ...
A close encounter with Neptune, where Triton's relative velocity is larger due to gravitational acceleration, is capable of directly capturing Triton from Solar orbit in a single pass. However, as gas drag would continue to influence Triton's orbit, the moon would be at risk of spiralling into Neptune unless the post-capture influence of drag ...
Triton's rotation axis is inclined 130° to Neptune's orbital plane and thus points within 40° of the Sun twice per Neptunian year, much like Uranus's. As Neptune orbits the Sun, Triton's polar regions take turns facing the Sun for 82 years at a stretch, resulting in radical seasonal changes as one pole, then the other, moves into the sunlight.
On the other hand, Neptune's Triton, which is probably a captured object, is usually listed as irregular despite being within 0.05 of the radius of Neptune's Hill sphere, so that Triton's precession is primarily controlled by Neptune's oblateness instead of by the Sun. [5] Neptune's Nereid and Saturn's Iapetus have semi-major axes close to 0.05 ...
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. It has a very thin atmosphere. Voyager 2 was only able to observe approximately ...
Slidr Sulci is a major tectonic fault on Neptune's largest moon Triton. It crosses a wide variety of terrains on Triton, most prominently the cantaloupe terrain, an unusually-textured region resembling the skin of a North American cantaloupe. The fault is named after the River Sliðr of Norse mythology, whose waters in Hel are filled with swords.