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Triton


Triton is the seventh, and largest, of Neptune's satellites. Triton is colder than any other measured object in the Solar System with a surface temperature of -235 degrees C. It has an extremely thin atmosphere. Nitrogen ice particles form thin clouds a few kilometers above the surface. The atmospheric pressure at Triton's surface is about 1/70,000th the surface pressure on Earth.

Triton is the only large satellite in the solar system to circle a planet in a retrograde direction -- in a direction opposite to the rotation of the planet. Triton contains more rock in its interior than the icy satellites of Saturn and Uranus do. The relatively high density and the retrograde orbit has led some scientists to suggest that Triton may have been captured by Neptune as it traveled through space several billion years ago. If that is the case, tidal heating could have melted Triton in its originally eccentric orbit, and the satellite might even have been liquid for as long as one billion years after its capture by Neptune.

Triton is scarred by enormous cracks, and has active geyser-like eruptions spewing nitrogen gas and dark dust particles several kilometers into the atmosphere.


Orbital Distance:   354,800 km (circular orbit)
Eccentricity:       0.000
Local Year:         5.900 days (5d 21h 36m 0s)
Orbital Velocity:   4.388 km/s (retrograde)
Inclination:        157°
Local Day:          5.900 days (5d 21h 36m 0s)
Axial Tilt:         n/a

Diameter:           2,706 km
Composition:        Rock and Ice
Density:            2.07 g/cm3
Mass:               2.15 x 1019 tonnes (0.004 earths)
Gravity:            0.08 G
Escape Velocity:    1.456 km/s
Area:               23 million km2
Surface Material:   Dark soil and ice
Atmosphere:         None
Pressure:           None
Albedo:             0.7
Temperature:        ???°C

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