This computer-generated image shows Neptune as it would appear from near its largest moon, Triton. [NASA/JPL/USGS]
Posted on 03/06/2021 3:59:31 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Neptune, however, is quirky. This gas giant has surprisingly few satellites — only 14 compared to, say, the nearly 70 moons of Jupiter — and most of them are extremely small. One of Neptune’s moons is an exception to this, however: Triton, which contains 99.7% of the mass of Neptune’s entire satellite system!
Triton’s orbit has a number of unusual properties. The orbit is retrograde — Triton orbits in the opposite direction as Neptune’s rotation — which is unique behavior among large moons in our solar system. Triton’s orbit is also highly inclined, and yet the moon’s path is nearly circular and lies very close to Neptune.
(Excerpt) Read more at aasnova.org ...
This computer-generated image shows Neptune as it would appear from near its largest moon, Triton. [NASA/JPL/USGS]
“The orbit is retrograde”
Likely to have been at least a few collisions.
Neptune’s capture of its moon Triton in a
binary–planet gravitational encounter
Craig B. Agnor1 & Douglas P. Hamilton2
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature04792
https://www.astro.umd.edu/~hamilton/research/reprints/AgHam06all.pdf
New capture scenario explains origin of Neptune’s oddball moon Triton
May 10, 2006
By Tim Stephens, Staff Writer
https://news.ucsc.edu/2006/05/867.html
How Neptune’s Triton Destroyed Nearly All Of Its Moons
Ethan Siegel, Senior Contributor
Aug 27, 2020,02:00am EDT|7,890 views
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2020/08/27/how-neptunes-triton-destroyed-nearly-all-of-its-moons/?sh=6bab412c5530
Neptune Might Have Captured Triton
By Sara Goudarzi May 10, 2006
https://www.space.com/2393-neptune-captured-triton.html
Capturing Triton
Astrobiology Magazine - May 12, 2006
https://www.astrobio.net/outer-solar-system/capturing-triton/
Is Pluto An Escaped Satellite of Neptune?
Tom Van Flandern
The Lake County Astronomical Society
Lake County, Illinois
Updated: May 21st 2012 12:54pm (paper is older, TVF is deceased)
https://www.lcas-astronomy.org/articles/display.php?filename=is_pluto_an_escaped_satellite_of_neptune&category=the_planets
Papers by Woolfson (d. 2019)
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/search/p_=0&q=author%3A%22Woolfson%2C%20M.%22&sort=date%20desc%2C%20bibcode%20desc
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=vid&q=triton+captured
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triton_(moon)
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Yeah, retrograde orbits are generally considered diagnostic of capture. A bunch of Jupiter’s minor moons / moonlets are in retrograde, for example.
Triton ate his little brothers and sisters. Mythic!
Neptune Might Have Captured Triton
Space.com on Yahoo | 5/10/06 | Sara Goudarzi
Posted on 5/10/2006, 3:31:09 PM by NormsRevenge
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1630007/posts
Heh, yeah, wonder where they got the idea? ;^)
World’s oldest telescope? [ Assyrian telescope? ]
BBC | Thursday, July 1, 1999 | Dr David Whitehouse
Posted on 8/11/2007, 11:19:25 AM by SunkenCiv
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1879740/posts
Dang! First the communists gain control of the country...
Now we find out that Triton gained control of Neptune’s satellite mass...
How can we be expected to sleep soundly at night?
Astronomy ping.
The first moon is always the best.
Maybe. But nuts. And more importantly, wrong.
Moons get crater and crater with age.
I agree, but wish (and he probably also did) that he'd submitted "Ages in Chaos" first, and then maybe never come out with WiC (the previously unpublished pt 1 came out last year or the year before, btw). The AiC series is the more important work.
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