Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Naiad, the closest regular moon, is also the second smallest among the inner moons (following the discovery of Hippocamp), whereas Proteus is the largest regular moon and the second largest moon of Neptune. The first five moons orbit much faster than Neptune's rotation itself ranging from 7 hours for Naiad and Thalassa, to 13 hours for Larissa.
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.
Proteus is the second-largest moon of Neptune and is the largest of its regular prograde moons. It is about 420 km (260 mi) in diameter, larger than Nereid, Neptune's third-largest moon. It was not discovered by Earth-based telescopes because Proteus orbits so close to Neptune that it is lost in the glare of reflected sunlight. [15]
An annotated picture of Neptune's many moons as captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. The bright blue diffraction star is Triton, Neptune's largest moon. Neptune has 16 known moons. [154] Triton is the largest Neptunian moon, accounting for more than 99.5% of the mass in orbit around Neptune, [i] and is the only one massive enough to be ...
Triton, the largest moon of Neptune, is an interloper.Planetary scientists believe the moon originated far from its parent planet, in the distant Kuiper Belt, and was later sucked into Neptune’s ...
Triton, the largest moon of the ice giant planet Neptune, is hypothesized to have been captured from heliocentric orbit. Triton is unusual as it is the only known large moon on a retrograde , highly- inclined orbit; that is, Triton orbits in the opposite direction Neptune rotates, and its orbit is not aligned with Neptune's equatorial plane.
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 core.
The largest of these may have a hydrostatic-equilibrium shape, but most are irregular. Most of the trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) listed with a radius smaller than 200 km have " assumed sizes based on a generic albedo of 0.09" since they are too far away to directly measure their sizes with existing instruments.