Triton
Neptune's large moon on a backwards orbit.
Triton is the largest moon of Neptune, 2,710 km across, and the only large moon in the Solar System with a retrograde orbit. It is thought to be a captured Kuiper belt dwarf planet.
Its young surface of frozen nitrogen has few craters, and it has a thin hazy atmosphere and possibly a subsurface ocean.
Quick Facts
- Pronounced
- ˈ
- t
- r
- aɪ
- t
- ən (TRY, tən)
- Adjectives
- Tritonian (t, r, aɪ, ˈ, t, oʊ, n, i, ə, n)
- Named after
- Τρίτων Trītōn
- Discoverer
- William Lassell
- Discovered
- October 10, 1846
- Average speed
- 4.39 km/s
- Inclination
- 129.812° (to the ecliptic)
- 156.885° (to Neptune's equator)
- 129.608° (to Neptune's orbit)
- Satellite of
- Neptune
More in Celestial Bodies & Worlds
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