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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.
Orbital diagram of the orbital inclination and orbital distances for Neptune's rings and moon system at various scales. Notable moons and rings are individually labeled. Open the image for full resolution. The Neptunian moons are listed here by orbital period, from shortest to longest. Irregular (captured) moons are marked by color.
The other large moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Triton) are generally believed to still be in equilibrium today. ... Orbital period about primary days: 27.32158 1. ...
Triton's orbit also experiences rapid precession, with a nodal precession period of 637 ± 40 years. [16] The combination of these factors results in complex seasonal cycles which vary significantly between each Neptune year, with its summer solstice subsolar latitude varying between 5° latitude to 50° latitude over a 140–180 year period.
If Triton was indeed captured during the era of giant planet migrations, it would be reasonable to assume that Nereid was also captured in this period. As a result, Triton's high eccentricity phase would have greatly perturbed any other irregular moons present at the time of its capture, including Nereid.
The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy , it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun , moons orbiting planets, exoplanets orbiting other stars , or binary stars .
The orbital period listed as -5.9 days is inconsistent with an inclination of 157°. If we consider Triton to be orbiting with a negative period, then its total number of orbits completed from a given epoch would be decreasing (this is strange by itself).
Here, the ratio of the rotation period of a body to its own orbital period is some simple fraction different from 1:1. A well known case is the rotation of Mercury, which is locked to its own orbit around the Sun in a 3:2 resonance. [2] This results in the rotation speed roughly matching the orbital speed around perihelion. [14]