![]() Triton's icy surface reflects so much of what little sunlight reaches it that the moon is one of the coldest objects in the solar system, about -400 degrees Fahrenheit (-240 degrees Celsius). Voyager 2 took an image showing a frosty plume shooting 5 miles (8 kilometers) into the sky and drifting 87 miles (140 kilometers) downwind. Ice volcanoes spout what is probably a mixture of liquid nitrogen, methane, and dust, which instantly freezes and then snows back down to the surface. Part of its surface resembles the rind of a cantaloupe. Voyager 2 revealed fascinating details about Triton. Astronomers using improved ground-based telescopes found more satellites in 20. All six are among the darker objects found in the solar system. Proteus and five other moons had to wait for Voyager 2 to make themselves known. Proteus is a slightly non-spherical moon, and it is thought to be right at the limit of how massive an object can be before its gravity pulls it into a sphere. He missed Proteus, the second-largest because it's too dark and too close to Neptune for telescopes of that era. Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper (for whom the Kuiper Belt was named) found Neptune's third-largest moon, Nereid, in 1949. Triton (not to be confused with Saturn's moon, Titan), is far and away the largest of Neptune's satellites. ![]() But when NASA's Voyager 2 visited Neptune in 1989, it revealed that the gas giant does have rings, though they're far too faint for Lassell to have seen them. That turned out to be a distortion caused by his telescope. Scientists using powerful telescopes and spacecraft have since discovered a total of 14 moons orbiting the distant world.Ĭuriously, a week before he found the satellite, Lassell thought he saw a ring around the planet. 10, 1846 – just 17 days after a Berlin observatory discovered Neptune. Lassell was one of 19th century England's grand amateur astronomers, using the fortune he made in the brewery business to finance his telescopes. ![]() We don't know if William Lassell had a celebratory beverage after his discovery of Neptune's moon, Triton, but beer made the finding possible. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS | More about this image They take 25 Earth years to orbit Neptune! The average distance is 125 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.This global color mosaic of Triton was taken in 1989 by Voyager 2 during its flyby of the Neptune system. The outer two small moons of Neptune (Psamathe and Neso) have the largest orbits of any moons discovered in the solar system to date.This has made scientist believe it may have once been a regular moon that was perturbed (scattered) to its current orbit when Triton was captured. The little moon Nereid, which is the 2 nd closest of the irregular moons, has one of the most eccentric orbits (eccentricity of 0.7507) of any known irregular satellite, with the lowest inclination.Usually, irregular moons are relatively small, that’s what makes Triton and Nereid interesting as they are the largest two (known) irregular moons in the solar system. ![]() Nereid, Halimede, Sao, Laomedeia, Psamathe, and Neso are the names of the small irregular moons with the later 5 being considered similar to the irregular moons of the other Gas Giants and as such are thought to have been gravitationally captured by Neptune.This group includes by far the most massive Neptunian moon Triton, but also 6 small moons that generally follow inclined eccentric orbits with 4 even in retrograde orbits around Neptune.Scientists believe these 7 inner regular moons, based on their orbits, were re-accreted from the debris formed after the massive moon Triton was captured and its orbit became circular.It is not fully understood, but Neptune's inner moons are relatively dark objects that typically only reflect between 6 to 10% of the sunlight that reaches them.Not surprisingly then that the inner moons are closely associated with Neptune's rings with the 2 closest moons actually orbiting between the Galle and LeVerrier rings!.The closest 5 of these small moons orbit quickly (less than 0.56 of an Earth Day) within the Neptune-synchronous orbit (Neptune's rotational period is 2/3 of an Earth day) and thus are slowly being tidally decelerated! This means they’ll likely one day impact with Neptune or be torn apart to form another ring system!.The regular moons are the 7 closest moons to Neptune (in order of distance) Naiad the closest, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea, Larissa, S/2004 N 1, and Proteus which all follow circular prograde orbits in the equatorial plane of Neptune.The moons of Neptune can be categorized into two groups based on their orbital characteristics: Regular and Irregular. All The Interesting Fun Facts You Should Know!
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